MANILA, Philippines — US-based drugmaker Pfizer-BioNTech has formally submitted an application for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine for children between five and 11 years old, Food and Drug Administration Director-General Eric Domingo confirmed.
This was confirmed by FDA Director-General Eric Domingo in a text message to Philstar.com.
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"Pfizer submitted the application this week and it is now under evaluation by our experts. We hope to make a decision before the end of the month. No other new applications," he said.
According to Domingo, the application for emergency use authorization in the Philippines could be fully processed and approved before the end of the year. This means that children aged 5 to 11 may soon be able to receive Pfizer vaccines by January.
An emergency us authorization or EUA is an authorization issued by the government for unregistered drugs and vaccines in a public health emergency and is required before doses can be deployed and administered.
"Sinovac already had an application to use the vaccine against COVID-19 in 3 years old to 17 years old, but it still lacks clinical data to prove that it can be used in children," he also said.
As of data from the Department of Health on Sunday morning, over 40 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, good for 36.9% of the population — a little over a third of the 90% that health authorities say must be vaccinated to attain herd immunity.
To date, 11,373 active cases of the pathogen remain in the Philippines, where 2.84 million coronavirus infections have been reported since the pandemic began.
The Philippine government is targeting seven million more COVID-19 jabs administered for the second round of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign set next week after missing its target for the first round of national vaccination.