In Moderna’s study, almost 7,000 children ages 6 months through 5 years received two 25-microgram doses of the vaccine -- a quarter of the adult dose. Lab tests found the shots produced high levels of protective antibodies that were equivalent to those raised in previous trials of young adults, hitting the primary goal of the study.
Moderna also said the vaccine was modestly effective in preventing Covid cases in the study, which mostly took place during recent periods while omicron was dominant. The shot was 43.7% effective in kids 6 months to under 2 years and 37.5% effective in kids ages 2 through 5 years.
Those results are “below the 50% generally viewed as the lower limit of approvable efficacy, so we think this two-dose regimen is unlikely to be approved,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Sam Fazeli and John Murphy wrote in a
note. “Even if it is, the appeal seems limited.”