Johnson & Johnson on Friday said it is planning to test its experimental coronavirus vaccine in youths aged between 12 to 18 as soon as possible.
This announcement was made by the company executive at a meeting held by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"We plan to go into children as soon as we possibly can, but very carefully in terms of safety," J&J's Dr Jerry Sadoff told a virtual meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Sadoff further stated that the company also intends to test the vaccine on younger children afterwards, depending on safety and other factors and after seeing the results.
The US Food and Drug Administration has said that it was important to test the Covid-19 vaccine candidates on children. Some doctors had raised concerns that the vaccines could trigger Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a rare and life-threatening condition, in some children.
J&J had begun testing its experimental covid-19 vaccine on adults in a 60,000-volunteer Phase III study in late September. But had to halt the trial earlier this month after a participant developing the unexplained illness. The trials were resumed last week.
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Drugmaker Pfizer Inc has already begun testing its coronavirus vaccine which it is developing in collaboration with Germany's BioNTech in children as young as 12.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the coronavirus has infected more than 4.54 crore people across the world, killing 11,87,550 people. Over 2.95 crore people have recovered from the infection so far.