Australian toddlers could be used in a global trial for the new Moderna Covid vaccine as its manufacturers bid to win approval for use on children worldwide.
Around 6,000 children aged from six months to 12 years old will be targeted in a clinical test run of the vaccine.
And the company – which starts shipping the first of 10 million doses of the jab to Australia next month – says it wants to include Aussie youngsters in the trial.
Details of the clinical trial plan are included in just one paragraph of the company’s 189-page quarterly financial statement issued to Wall Street last Thursday.
In an escalation of US trials on teenagers, the company reveals its roadmap to extend testing to younger age groups in a ‘randomised, observer-blind, placebo controlled study’.
USA-based Moderna says it wants to test the vaccine on ‘approximately 6,000 healthy children, 6 months to [under] 12 years of age’.
The company plans to test different levels of doses on three different age groups, 6 to under 12 years old, 2 to 6 years old and 6 month to 2 years old.
It adds: ‘The study will enrol in the US and up to two ex-US countries (e.g. Canada and/or Australia).’