Biotech Company Moderna Commences COVID-19 Vaccine Trial On Children Under 12 Years Old

American pharmaceutical company Moderna has begun testing its COVID-19 vaccine on children between the ages of 6 months and 12 years.

According to People, the biotech company whose vaccine was authorized for emergency use in adults in the United States in December 2020 gave the first doses to the adolescents involved in a new trial (called the kidCOVE study) this week.

In a recent press release, Moderna said that they plan to enroll about 6,750 children in the study.

"We are pleased to begin this Phase 2/3  study of mRNA-1273 in healthy children in the U.S. and Canada, and we thank NIAID and BARDA for their collaboration", said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, in a statement.

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"It is humbling to know that 17.8 million adults in the U.S. have received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to date. We are encouraged by the primary analysis of the Phase 3 COVE study of mRNA-1273 in adults age 18 and above, and this pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population."

Moderna explained that the trial will reportedly "evaluate the safety, tolerability, reactogenicity, and effectiveness of two doses of mRNA-1273 given 28 days apart."

As of the time of this writing, at least 71,054,445 American adults have gotten at least a dose of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines, as revealed by the CDC.