Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine 73% effective in kids under 5 years

Los Angeles, Aug 25 The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine was 73 per cent effective in protecting children ages 6 months through 4 years during the time when the Omicron strain was highly prevalent, Pfizer has announced.

The vaccine was granted Emergency Use Authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration for this age group on June 17.

Participants in the study received either three 3-µg doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or placebo. Vaccine efficacy was 73.2 per cent among children 6 months through 4 years of age without evidence of prior Covid-19 infection, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the results announced by the two companies.

"While these results confirm that three 3-µg doses of our Covid-19 vaccine provide young children with a high level of protection at a time when the Omicron BA.2 strain was highly prevalent with a favorable safety profile, we are also developing an Omicron BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine in this age group to address these sublineages," said Ugur Sahin, CEO and Co-Founder of BioNTech.