23 May 2021
10:42
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Moderna wants to submit an application in June to have its vaccine also administered to 12 to 18-year-olds. CEO Stéphane Bancel also advocates giving risk groups a third injection by the end of the summer.
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He says this in an interview with the French Journal du Dimanche. Barnel mainly targets people in residential care centers, because ‘they have already received their first injection at the beginning of the year’. However, according to Bancel, the Moderna vaccine should “provide protection for one to three years. ‘But the emergence of variants increases the risk of becoming ill.’
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Since the majority of adults will have their first shot by the end of the summer, Bancel is asking the government to start vaccinating young people between 12 and 18 as soon as possible. After all, the Moderna vaccine is currently only administered to adults.
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Ideally, 12-18 year olds would also be protected by the end of August. If we don’t vaccinate them en masse, then a fourth wave of corona cannot be ruled out, ‘says Bancel. The American biotech company wants to apply for approval from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) next month to also give adolescents a first shot.
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At the moment, only Pfizer has approval to administer its vaccine to people between the ages of 16 and 18, although the company also has an application to bring that lower limit to 12 years old.
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3 billion vaccines
Moderna would produce a total of 3 billion vaccines this year, according to the CEO. Together with the four billion that Pfizer / BioNTech wants to roll off the line, that is “enough to give the entire world population a first dose,” says Barnel.
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The American company is now fully engaged in developing its vaccines against four virus variants. It expects the first results of this in early June. If those updated vaccines prove effective against the variants, Moderna would request approval from the EMA in August.
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