FDA sets June dates for meeting on kids’ vaccine

The timeline for vaccines for young children is coming into focus.

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday released tentative June dates for its advisory committee to meet to discuss authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for young children, offering a rough timeline for when authorization could come.

 

The agency said it is setting aside June 8, 21 and 22 for meetings of its advisory committee for vaccines for children under 5 and will provide more details once applications from Pfizer and Moderna are complete.

 

That timetable suggests that if all goes according to plan, authorizations for the vaccine for children under 5 could come in June.

 

Some parents have been anxiously awaiting vaccines for young children, and the timeline has been repeatedly delayed.

 

Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, also told The Washington Post on Friday that the agency would not delay authorization of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine to wait for the other, responding in part to a Politico story that reported that was under consideration.

 

“We are not going to delay things unnecessarily here,” Marks told the Post. “This whole concept of delaying is not something we will be doing.”