(Reuters) – Britain’s health regulator has approved Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged 12 to 17 years, it said on Tuesday.
The approval comes more than two months after Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine got regulatory nod for use in children aged 12 to 15.
Moderna’s vaccine was recommended for use in adolescents by European regulators in July and is awaiting U.S. authorisation. It is currently approved for people over the age of 18 in the UK.
Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) gave the go ahead on Aug. 4 for 16- and 17-year-olds to get their first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine ahead of schools returning in September.
JCVI will make a decision on whether the vaccine will be deployed or not.
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
