The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declined to issue an emergency use authorization for Covaxin, the COVID-19 vaccine developed by its Indian partner Bharat Biotech, for children, according to the maker of the shot.
Ocugen said in a news release, announcing the health agency’s decision, that it intends to continue working with the FDA to evaluate the process for getting an emergency use authorization for pediatric use of Covaxin. The company had sought to authorize the shot for children aged 2 to 18.
Ocugen had entered into a deal with vaccine maker Bharat Biotech in late 2020, under which it would develop, supply, and commercialize Covaxin for the U.S. market.
Covaxin, which is not cleared for any age group in the United States, is one of the two most widely used COVID vaccines in India and also has an emergency use listing from the World Health Organization.
A large-scale clinical trial found the vaccine provided decent protection against COVID-19, although it was carried out before the spread of the Omicron variant, which began to spread in the United States in late 2021.
Covaxin, unlike Moderna or Pfizer, doesn’t use mRNA, and uses inactivated coronavirus technology similar to Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine.
The FDA has only fully authorized Pfizer’s two-shot mRNA vaccine for children aged 5 to 17. There are currently no COVID-19 vaccines that are authorized for children under 5.
Ocugen said that it is continuing to seek full approval for the vaccine within the United States, and it previously said that it would start enrolling adult American volunteers for a clinical trial.
There has been controversy after the FDA approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines for children. Some health experts have argued that most healthy children should not receive the vaccine, as a number of studies and data have shown that children have an extremely low chance of succumbing to COVID-19 or developing severe symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that children aged 5 and older receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
On Monday, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo told reporters that his state “is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children.”
And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also said during the same event that there “a failure to weigh costs and benefits, whether that’s lockdowns, whether that’s school closures, or whether that’s even something about whether a healthy seven-year-old kid should get the COVID vaccines.”
COVID-19 is the illness caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Original link : FDA Rejects Non-mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine for Children: Company