Corona vaccination for children: BioNTech applies for approval
BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine soon for children and adolescents? The pharmaceutical manufacturer BioNTech/Pfizer is applying to the European Medicines Agency for approval of the corona vaccine for children and adolescents aged 12 to 15 years.
A corona vaccination for children and adolescents is particularly important due to herd immunity  . Children and adolescents rarely show a severe course, but can infect adults and other children as silent carriers. In addition, health consequences have also been demonstrated in children after a mild corona infection.
Corona vaccination for children: BioNTech/Pfizer submits an application for approval
Corona vaccination for children and young people during the summer holidays? The pharmaceutical manufacturers BioNTech  and Pfizer today applied for approval of the vaccine for the age group from 12 to 15 years.
As a result, the 12 to 15-year-olds could receive the first corona vaccination before school starts, according to the Ministry of Health.
Based on the previous study data, BioNTech/Pfizer has already applied for conditional approval in the USA, and this is now also to be granted in Europe.
Corona vaccine for children: high effectiveness
In a press release at the beginning of April, BioNTech announced the first successes of the BNT162b2 vaccine in connection with children and adolescents. The number of antibodies was higher in the subjects in the manufacturer’s study than in the 16 to 25 year olds who had already been tested. The vaccine is also well tolerated by this age group.
As part of the study, 2,260 adolescents in the USA were  vaccinated with the BioNTech/Pfizer corona vaccine . According to the results so far, the effectiveness of the vaccine in this age group is 100 percent. Of the 1,129 participants in the placebo group, 18 contracted COVID-19 , while none of the 1,131 people in the control group contracted corona after the second vaccination  .
The vaccine has a geometric mean antibody titer of 1,229.5, which BioNTech/Pfizer says may indicate strong immunogenicity.
Children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 25 have tolerated the vaccine well so far, and the comprehensive presentation of the results is to follow.
BioNTech/Pfizer wants to expand approval
Based on the results so far, the manufacturer wants to extend the approval of the vaccines to children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15. A study with younger children is already underway.
Health Minister Jens Spahn said in his press conference that a high level of effectiveness in this age group is gratifying, but that the tolerability and side effects in children and adolescents must also be taken into account and examined sufficiently.
Moderna is also testing vaccine for children
The Moderna vaccine has also been tested in the United States and Canada on a total of 6,750 children and adolescents aged six months to eleven years since mid-March.