Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is altering plans and testing three doses of its COVID-19 vaccine in babies and preschoolers after two shots didn’t appear strong enough for some of the children.
Pfizer announced the change after preliminary analysis found the immune response to the very low-dose shots, the company is testing in the children, was not as strong as expected.Pfizer had expected data on the efficacy of the vaccines in children under five by the end of the year and it is not clear how long the change will delay the final results.
At present a child-sized version of Pfizer’s vaccine, one that is a third of the dose given to those 12 and older, is already available for five to 11-year-olds. For those under two-years-old the very low-dose shots appeared to work with the youngsters producing similar antibody levels. "Therefore, we have decided to modify each of the paediatric studies to incorporate a third dose to the series and seek licensure for a three-dose series rather than a two-dose series as originally anticipated," Ms Jansen said.No safety concerns have been detected in the study, Pfizer and BioNTech said.
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