Moderna Gives Fresh Insights Into Its Vaccine

<h4>Moderna Gives Fresh Insights Into Its Vaccine<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> has gathered that Moderna has said two 25-microgram doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 years old provid a similar immune response to two 100-microgram doses for adults ages 18 to 25&comma; indicating that the benefit conferred to young adults is also conferred to young children&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The two doses of vaccine are given to children 28 days apart&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The data showed &&num;8220&semi;a robust neutralizing antibody response&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;a favorable safety profile&comma;&&num;8221&semi; according to a company news release issued Wednesday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Based on the data&comma; Moderna said it will ask the US Food and Drug Administration to authorize the use of the vaccine in this younger age group in the coming weeks&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Given the need for a vaccine against COVID-19 in infants and young children we are working with the U&period;S&period; FDA and regulators globally to submit these data as soon as possible&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Moderna CEO <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;google&period;com&sol;">Stéphane Bancel<&sol;a> said&period; &&num;8220&semi;We believe these latest results &&num;8230&semi; are good news for parents of children under 6 years of age&period;&&num;8221&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The vaccine was not all that effective at preventing Covid-19 infections caused by the Omicron variant&comma; which predominated in the US during the study&period; For children ages 6 months through 1 year old&comma; the efficacy was 43&period;7&percnt;&period; For children ages 2 through 5&comma; the efficacy was 37&period;5&percnt;&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Moderna said the lower efficacy was still statistically significant and consistent with how vaccinated adults have fared with the Omicron variant&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Moderna said it is preparing to evaluate the potential of a booster shot for all children 6 months and older&comma; which would target the original strain of the virus as well as the Omicron variant&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The data is based on a group of 6&comma;900 children ages 6 months through 5 years old&period; The majority of adverse reactions were mild or moderate&comma; and were more frequent after the second shot&period; Moderna said no deaths and no cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were reported&period; Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is inflammation of the heart lining&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Moderna also announced that it has initiated a submission to the FDA for emergency use authorization of the company&&num;8217&semi;s Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 6 through 11 years old&period; Children that age would get two shots of a larger 50-microgram version of the vaccine&period; Moderna also said it provided the FDA with additional follow-up data on its vaccine for children ages 12 to 17&period; Children that age would get two shots of a larger 100-microgram version of the vaccine&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Last month&comma; the FDA postponed a meeting of its vaccine advisers to consider Pfizer&sol;BioNTech&&num;8217&semi;s Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than 5&comma; and requested additional data on third doses&period; The companies have said they expect that data to be ready by early April&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Source&colon; CNN<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;