EU watchdog assessing Pfizer shot for youngsters 12 to 15

The EU's medicines watchdog said Tuesday it has started to evaluate Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 booster shot for children aged 12 to 15 years.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) last week said it would rule soon on a similar application to give the booster jab, called Comirnaty, to teens aged 16 and 17 within the 27-nation bloc.

"EMA has started evaluating an application for the use of a booster dose of Comirnaty in adolescents aged 12 to 15 years," the Amsterdam-based agency said.

"An application in older adolescents aged 16 to 17 years is also ongoing," it added in a statement.

The EMA last October approved Comirnaty booster jabs for all people aged 18 and older, followed by a similar decision to back Moderna's Spikevax shortly afterwards.

The EMA's head of vaccines strategy Marco Cavaleri last week said it was unlikely there would be a decision to approve two vaccines produced by French firms Valneva and Sanofi Pasteur—both currently under rolling review—before Easter.

But he added that vaccination—in particular booster jabs—"remained the best form of protection against serious illness from the Omicron variant of the virus."

© 2022 AFP