Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in adolescents

Pfizer says the COVID-19 vaccine which is being administered to adults is very effective in adolescent patients as well.

According to a news release, the vaccine was shown to demonstrate 100 percent efficacy and robust antibody responses in a Phase 3 trial in adolescents from 12 to 15 years old. These results exceed those which were recorded when the vaccine was administered to patients from 16 to 25 years old.

“We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15,” Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, says in the release. “We plan to submit these data to FDA as a proposed amendment to our Emergency Use Authorization in the coming weeks and to other regulators around the world, with the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year.”

The company intends to submit the data to the Food and Drug administration as a proposed amendment to the drug’s current emergency use authorization in the coming weeks in an effort to vaccinate the age group before the start of the new year, according to the release.

Pfizer’s vaccine, BNT162b2, was the first receive authorization in the U.S., and at the time showed 95 percent efficacy in patients not previously infected with COVID-19 and also those who have previously been infected beginning 28 days after the first dose.

In February the company announced that it expected to deliver 120 million doses of the vaccine to the U.S. by the end of March, with 13 million doses being shipped a week.