Moderna announced on Thursday it had dosed the first teens in a study testing its COVID-19 vaccine, and hopes to release data ahead of the 2021 school year.
The trial will enroll 3,000 healthy participants in the United States and will assess the safety and effectiveness of two doses of the company’s vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, given 28 days apart.
Moderna has submitted applications seeking emergency use authorization (EUA) in the United States and EU after full results from a late-stage study showed the vaccine was 94.1% effective in adults with no serious safety concerns.
Rival Pfizer/BioNTech have also sought EUA after their coronavirus vaccine’s two-dose regimen proved 95% effective against COVID-19 and had no major safety issues.
Meanwhile, a panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will meet on Thursday to discuss whether to recommend the use of Pfizer’s vaccine for people aged 16 and older.
