Moderna joins Pfizer in push to vaccinate 5 to 11-year-olds

Moderna will apply to have its Covid vaccine approved for use in children aged five to 11 in Australia. The US has already approved Pfizer jabs for this age group.

Moderna is set to join ­Pfizer in applying to have its Covid-19 vaccine approved for use on children aged five to 11 in Australia.

The news came as the jabs for kids moved a step closer on Saturday with the US Food and Drug Administration giving approval for Pfizer’s jab to be used for emergency use in children five to 11. The FDA is the first regulator in the world to approve jabs for small children. It said they were 90 per cent effective.

Pfizer and Moderna will apply to the TGA for approval to vaccinate 5 to 11-year-olds in Australia. Picture: Getty

Last month the Therapeutic Goods Administration gave Pfizer the green light to apply for approval for the use of its vaccine on children aged 5 to 11 years.

The Australian drug regulator has been closely following Pfizer’s journey to having its vaccine approved for youngsters in the US.

Senior government sources said they had been told Moderna would follow suit as early as next week in applying to the TGA for approval to use its vaccine on children.

The company has already submitted data to the TGA in its quest to get its vaccine approved for use as booster shots.

The FDA-approved doses for children are only a third of the amount given to teens and adults, mean up to 28 million American children could be eligible for vaccinations as soon as the country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention make more detailed recommendations on which children should be vaccinated.

This could happen as soon as Tuesday, with the two doses set to be administered three weeks apart.

The vaccination of children has pitted international regulators against each other.

In September the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation determined that while there were health benefits from vaccinating adolescents between 12 and 16, l there was not enough evidence of the benefits to justify a whole-of-population rollout of jabs.

In contrast Australia has already jabbed more than half of that age group.

The first dose vaccination rate among over-70s in Australia reached 99 per cent.

Overall, 88.1 per cent of eligible Australians have now had one dose, while 76.79 are fully vaccinated.

Originally published as Moderna joins Pfizer in push to vaccinate 5 to 11-year-olds