By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Moderna stock (NASDAQ:MRNA) plunged 8% Monday as the Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the Covid-19 shots made by rivals Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) while saying it continues to review data concerning all available vaccines.
The drug regulator today said a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine outweighs the potential risks in children 12 years and older and is thus allowed to be administered.
The body also authorized a third dose for immunocompromised children 5 years and older. It also shortened the time between the completion of primary vaccination of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and a booster dose to at least five months for all eligible individuals older than 12 years, leaving unchanged the six-month gap for those vaccinated by Moderna’s shot, reports said.
The FDA decision comes as the Omicron variant rages through the U.S. and many other countries. Daily infections in U.S. along have crossed 700,000, a pandemic record while the world is averaging 1.5 million new cases every day.
The FDA said it reviewed real-world data from Israel, including safety data from more than 6,300 individuals 12 through 15 years of age who received a booster dose of the vaccine at least five months following completion of the primary two-dose vaccination series.