Pfizer’s vaccine is 100% effective in preventing coronavirus infection in teens ages 12 to 15, the company said.
In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta explains to us what the pharmacist said and the efforts of other colleagues such as Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.
You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.
Hi, I’m Dr. Elmer Huerta And this is your daily dose of information on the new coronavirus. Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.
How time flies!
The coronavirus vaccine: the beginnings
Reviewing the archives of this podcast, it is hard to believe that the first episode about vaccines was published on Monday, April 6, when – in the face of the many conversations that were had about the need for vaccines against the new coronavirus – we heard an episode about the scientific method for vaccine development.
Then, on May 1, we had an episode about the first successful research with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which had been shown to elicit immunity in six macaque monkeys.
A year later, there are already several vaccines in full use, including those for:
- Modern,
- Pfizer/BioNTech,
- Johnson & Johnson,
- AstraZeneca/Oxford,
- Sinopharm,
- CanSino
- and the Gamaleya Institute.
Vaccines that – compared to a placebo – have shown very high efficacy in preventing severe disease in adults.
But the problem is that all these vaccines – with the exception of Pfizer that can be applied to adolescents between 16 and 17 years of age – are indicated for people over 18 years of age, so many voices have been raised to ask for a vaccine for adolescents. and kids.
LOOK: Pfizer says that the protection of its vaccine against covid-19 lasts at least six months and protects against variants
The Covid-19 Vaccine for Children and Adolescents
As we heard in the February 15 episode, some laboratories were already working on developing childhood and adolescent vaccines, including that of Pfizer / BioNTech, which announced that it had completed the recruitment of 2,259 child volunteers between the ages of 12 and 15. .
Now, the news is that in a March 31 press release, the Pfizer / BioNTech company reports precisely the results of that study. The pharmaceutical company announced that an interim analysis has calculated that the vaccine is 100% effective in preventing infection in children between 12 and 15 years of age. This exceeds the efficacy reported in a previous trial of participants aged 16 to 25 years.
The phase 3 trial recruited 2,260 adolescents ages 12 to 15 in the United States, of whom half received a placebo and the other half the vaccine.
In the initial analysis, the researchers found that 18 teens contracted COVID-19, all of them in the placebo group and none in the vaccinated group.
On the other hand, vaccination stimulated the production of neutralizing antibodies was intense, remaining in a subset of participating adolescents, up to a month after the second dose.
According to the statement, the administration of the vaccine was well tolerated, with side effects similar to those seen in participants aged 16 to 25 years. That is, mainly local reactions, with pain at the injection site, fatigue, fever and tiredness.
The next step
The companies Pfizer and BioNTech plan to send the scientific data of the study to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to request an amendment to the authorization of emergency use that already has its vaccine of adults, expanding it as soon as possible to adolescents from 12 to 15 years old.
In the same text, Pfizer / BioNTech gives a preview of a combined phase 1-2-3 study in children between 6 months and 11 years, which aims to evaluate the safety, tolerability and ability to generate antibodies of its vaccine.
The study will administer two doses of the vaccine approximately every 21 days to children divided into three groups between the ages of 5 to 11 years, 2 to 5 years and 6 months to 2 years.
The statement says that during the last week of March the administration of the vaccines to the first children from 5 to 11 years began and it is planned to begin the study in the group of 2 to 5 years during the first week of April.
But Pfizer is not alone in developing childhood and adolescent vaccines.
What other companies are working on the vaccine for children and adolescents?
The Moderna laboratory is also testing its vaccine in children, expecting results from a phase 3 trial in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years in the coming weeks and in children between 6 months to 12 years in the second half of the year.
For its part, the AstraZeneca laboratory announced that it will begin studies in children aged 6 to 17 years in the United Kingdom, planning a phase 2 randomized, single-blind trial, with 300 volunteers of which 240 will receive the vaccine, and the rest a vaccine control against meningitis, which has been shown to be safe in children.
Finally, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax laboratories are also planning childhood vaccines, but details are not yet available.
Without a doubt, childhood and adolescent vaccines will be of great help to reduce the burden of disease in society, since Although covid-19 is less likely to be complicated in children, it represents approximately 10% of cases of the disease in the United States, causing –according to CDC data Until March 31st- 228 deaths from covid-19 in minors of 5 to 17 yearss and 104 between 0 and 4 years for a total of 332, Compared to 188 for childhood flu.
The children tend to suffer also a complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome which, according to the CDC, has caused 2.617 cases and 33 deaths until March 1st from 2021.
Finally, knowing that adolescents can infect more than children, starting the vaccination of the adolescent group will help to interrupt the transmission of the virus to parents and teachers at the beginning of the school season.
Do you have questions about the coronavirus?
Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes. You can find me at @Drhuerta.
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