US Pharmaceutical Company Moderna announced that its trials with adolescents aged 12-17 years of age have been highly effective. They are likely to seek emergency regulatory approval in June.
There were 3,732 adolescents in the age group of 12 to 17 years in the Moderna trial. Two-thirds of its volunteers were randomly administered with the Moderna vaccine and the rest received a placebo. Results suggested that those who completed the stipulated two doses had no cases of symptomatic COVID-19 in the group that got the Moderna vaccine. Whereas in the placebo group, four cases surfaced, revealing a 100 percent effective rate.
The research further highlights that, unlike adults, adolescents are less likely to contract the novel coronavirus. It looked at efficacy based on a more stringent definition of COVID-19, which required only one symptom in addition to a positive test. Thus, the vaccine was seen to be 93 percent effective after the first dose.
Another plus point is that the recipients of the vaccine didn’t report any major side effects, and reacted similarly to the adults, including mild pain around the injection site, headache, fatigue, muscle ache, and chills.
“We are encouraged that mRNA-1273 was highly effective at preventing Covid-19 in adolescents. We will submit these results to the US FDA and regulators globally in early June and request authorization,” CEO Stephane Bancel said in an official statement.
But the bad news is that though Indian authorities have allowed private companies to import vaccines that have been approved, it doesn’t look like we’re getting the doses anytime soon. Also, both Pfizer and Moderna are occupied with their pre-booked orders and it could take a longer time than expected to bring their vaccines to India.