(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc said on Tuesday it will start a large study to test its COVID-19 vaccine in children below 12 and selected a dosing regime for the trial.
The study will enroll up to 4,500 children at more than 90 clinical sites in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain, the company said.
Pfizer’s vaccine has been authorized for use in children as young as 12 in Europe, the United States and Canada.
The company said it has selected a dose of 10 micrograms in children between 5 and 11 years of age and 3 micrograms between for infants in age-group of 6 months to five.
Inoculating children and young people is considered a critical step toward reaching “herd immunity” and taming the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
