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- President Biden’s chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday that the FDA could authorize the Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)/ BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) COVID-19 vaccine next month for children under the age of five.
- “My hope is that it’s going to be within the next month or so and not much later than that, but I can’t guarantee that,” Fauci said in an interview with Blue Star Families, a non-profit group formed in support of military families, CNBC reports.
- In October, the FDA cleared the Pfizer (PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX) COVID-19 shot for those aged 5 to 11 years at the ten micrograms dose level.
- In another development, an expert panel at the Japanese health ministry authorized the Pfizer (PFE)/ BioNTech (BNTX) COVID-19 shot for children aged 5 to 11 years on Thursday. Accordingly, about 7 million kids in Japan will be eligible to receive the vaccine from March at the earliest following the special approval from the country’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Kyodo News reports.
- Pfizer (PFE), BioNTech (BNTX), and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA) are trading higher in the pre-market after a selloff early this week amid concerns over the efficacy of a second booster shot against the Omicron variant.