Pfizer Says Three Doses Of Its COVID-19 Vaccine Produce

Posted by Liz Seyi on July 3rd, 2022

Pfizer has said that according to new data, three doses of its COVID-19 vaccine showed 80% effectiveness against symptomatic omicron infection in children aged from six months to under five years old.

The development, which will be of interest to many medical professionals with an interest in making safe prescribing calculations, is thought to potentially pave the way for younger children to be given doses of the vaccine as soon as the early summer. 

Pfizer did sound a note of caution about the finding however, stating that the calculation had been based on the diagnosis of just 10 cases among research participants by the end of April. According to the study rules, a minimum of 21 cases are required to formally ascertain effectiveness. 

Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Pfizer, commented: “Our COVID-19 vaccine has been studied in thousands of children and adolescents, and we are pleased that our formulation for the youngest children… was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response.” 

Reassurance for parents of the vaccine’s likely effectiveness

As a healthcare professional led team, we continue to offer our safeMedicateManaging Covid-19 module free of cost to NHS colleagues across the UK. For those who are not yet familiar with this, our COVID-19 Education Support module is our contribution to supporting healthcare practitioners’ competence updating in COVID-19 related drug dosage calculations. 

Despite Pfizer saying that the estimate was preliminary – being open to adjustment as more data was gathered – what we know so far does indicate that the vaccine has a degree of effectiveness against the disease for these children.

It has been an uphill climb for Pfizer, in its efforts to determine the right approach to vaccinating children in this age group against COVID-19. Initially, their aim was to give these children a very low dose of the vaccine – a tenth of the amount administered to adults – but its trial results based on two doses suggested this wasn’t quite strong enough. 

The disappointing findings resulted in administering a third shot to over 1,600 children aged from six months to four years, as the omicron variant of the virus spread rapidly during the winter. 

The outcome of this trial was much more effective. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech stated in a press release that the additional shot gave the children’s antibodies levels enough of a boost to satisfy the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s criteria for safe emergency use.

What will happen next?

Following the release of this data from Pfizer, the FDA has tentatively set a date of June 15 for its advisers to discuss the potential use of the COVID-19 vaccine in young children. ABC News reported that this could lead to not only Pfizer’s vaccine, but also the Moderna’s vaccine being granted authorization by the end of June. 

Moderna has based its own vaccine in this age group on two doses, each one quarter of the adult dose. 

However, question marks remain about the likely uptake of any such vaccine aimed at the smallest children. A recent survey found that less than a fifth of parents are eager to arrange for immediate vaccination of their children aged under five.

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