EU DRUG AGENCY MULLS DECISION ON VACCINE FOR KIDS THIS MONTH

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) wants to issue a decision later this month about whether children aged 12 and older should be able to receive the BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported.

EMA said on Tuesday that the process could be accelerated due to progress in the evaluation phase and may be completed by the end of the month. EMA chief Emer Cooke told the Handelsblatt newspaper that the agency was receiving data on the vaccine's effect on 12- to 15-year-olds. "We started testing on April 30," Cooke said.

She cited June as the target for approval but said the EMA was trying to see if it could accelerate it even faster, aiming for the end of May.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday said it expanded the emergency use authorization for the use for the BioNTech/Pfizer jab to include children and adolescents aged from 12 to 15.

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