On Thursday, Moderna (MRNA -0.74%) announced it's filed for emergency use authorization of its COVID vaccine in teens aged 12 to 18. If the agency gives Moderna a greenlight, parents will have another vaccine option beyond Pfizer (PFE 0.23%) and BioNTech's (BNTX 0.16%) vaccine, which was approved for use in teenagers aged 12 to 18 in May.
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COVID is a coronavirus that can be spread easily and so far, over 174 million cases and 3.7 million deaths have been attributed to the disease worldwide.
Fortunately, drugmakers, including Moderna, have developed vaccines to help prevent severe disease and over the past few months, governments have made significant progress in vaccinating adult populations. For example, over 304 million COVID vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. with 52% of Americans having received at least one vaccine dose.
The vaccination rate in children is lower, with only 23% of Americans under 18 years old having received at least one vaccine dose, but that rate should improve as more vaccines secure FDA approval. The FDA expanded emergency use of Pfizer's COVID vaccine to include children over 12 years old last month and a meeting of its advisory committee to discuss vaccinating adolescents is happening this week.
Investigators observed no COVID-19 cases in Moderna's study of teens aged 12 to 18 and safety was similar to adults, suggesting the vaccine could win emergency use approval soon.
