New Delhi: US-based pharma company Pfizer is likely to soon get approval for providing vaccines for children aged between 5 to 12 by October. At present only Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine have received emergency use authorisation for children aged 12 and older.
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"Pfizer will be in a position to file data with the FDA at some point next month, and then submit its application to expand its emergency use authorisation for its vaccine in children 5 years and older as early as October," Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told CBS News.
Gottlieb also said that the FDA approval was expected by early winter and that even if the authorization is done by November or early December, the vaccines can be rolled out by the end of this year.
It has become crucial to provide vaccination to children as the new Delta variant has been found to be highly contagious especially among children. According to reports, Pfizer has also been conducting clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in children ages 2 and older. The results will be available in November.
Over 200 million doses of its COVID vaccine have been administered in the US and recently the Biden administration announced booster shots for fully vaccinated adults eight months after their second doses, beginning September 20.
Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that India is in talks to buy 50 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
(With IANS Inputs)