Moderna To Conduct Trial Vaccinations For Children In Arizona

PHOENIX, AZ — Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company Moderna announced it has started vaccinating children across the U.S. and Canada as part of a clinical study.

Arizona will be one of the states involved in the three-part trial, which includes 6,750 healthy children between the age of 6 months and 12 years, according to a Moderna release.

The study, which is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, will give two doses of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine 28 days apart in a randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled study.

"We are encouraged by the primary analysis of the Phase 3 COVE study of mRNA-1273 in adults ages 18 and above and this pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population," Stephanie Bancel, CEO of Moderna, said in the release.

The first part of the study saw children between the ages of a 2 and 12 receive one of two dose levels, while others aged 6 months to 2 years of age received one of three dosages.

The opening stage's purpose was to determine which dose would be used in the second stage of the trial, the release said.

Participants are monitored for 12 months after their second dose to study its effectiveness for children.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is currently authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for those 18 years of age and older but not for children.

Interested participants can register to participate in the study here.