“In Europe, we are in the final stages before submitting” clinical trial data to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and validation for 12-15 year olds is expected to take between four and six weeks, the co-worker said. -Founder and director of Pfizer, Ugur Sahin, at German magazine Spiegel.

This vaccine is currently only authorized for people aged 16 and over. In the United States, BioNTech and its partner Pfizer have already filed in early April a request to extend the emergency authorization of the vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 years.

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“100% efficiency”

The applications for authorization are based on data from phase 3 clinical trials on this age group published in late March, “which have demonstrated 100% effectiveness” in preventing the disease, according to the laboratories.

The vaccine was also “well tolerated and the side effects were generally consistent with those seen” in people aged 16 to 25, Pfizer and BioNTech added on Friday.

Ongoing study on the youngest

For children aged 5 to 12, Mr. Sahin continues to rely on the results of the clinical study in July and remains “on track” for authorization by the start of the September.

The results of a study on even younger children could be available from September.

“The validation lasts between four and six weeks,” Sahin said. On April 27, the co-founder, with his wife, of the Mainz laboratory had considered possible a “collective immunity” in Europe “in July, at the latest in August” and affirmed his “confidence” in the effectiveness of the vaccine against the so-called Indian variant of the coronavirus.