Moderna and Pfizer both sought FDA emergency use authorization for their updated Covid-19 boosters for younger people in recent days. Moderna is seeking authorization for children as young as 6 years and Pfizer for children ages 5 through 11.
“From the data we have so far, Covid-19 rebound is a relatively infrequent event — this is not happening the majority of the time,” a spokesperson from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN. “A small percentage of people with Covid-19 experience a rebound of symptoms, including those who take antiviral medication, such as Paxlovid.”
Moderna outlined specific instances where the company claims Pfizer’s infringed on its patents, saying the company moved foward with “a vaccine that has the same exact mRNA chemical modification to its vaccine as Spikevax. Moderna scientists began developing this chemical modification that avoids provoking an undesirable immune response when mRNA is introduced into the body in 2010 and were the first to validate it in human trials in 2015.”
Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday they have submitted Covid-19 vaccine data on children ages 5 to 11 to the US Food and Drug Administration for initial review, but are not yet seeking emergency use authorization.
The daily pace of new Covid-19 vaccinations in the United States is the lowest it has been since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started tracking it in mid-January, data shows.
