The Food and Drug Administration will this week have experts consider the registration of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines made by Sinovac and Sinopharm for administration with people aged 3-17 years.
FDA deputy secretary-general Dr Surachoke Tangwiwat said that last week the Government Pharmaceutical Organization, in its capacity as a vaccine importer, submitted a report on a study of Sinovac’s COVID-19 vaccine administered among people aged 3-17 years in Chile. Besides, Biogenetech Co, the importer of Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine, also proposed a study on the vaccine for people of the same age range.
The FDA would forward the proposals to relevant experts this week and if they approved the vaccination proposals, the Department of Disease Control would announce their use for children, Dr Surachoke said.
The vaccination proposals were based on the existing inactivated vaccines of Sinovac and Sinpharm. The companies only proposed to widen the age ranges of recipients. A dose for the latest age group would be 0.5 milliliter, he said.
Dr Opas Karnkawinpong, director-general of the Department of Disease Control, said if the FDA registered the extended use of Sinovac’s vaccine, it could be administered for younger recipients right away because the country had earlier acquired the vaccine and China had donated 1.5 million doses.
The government would not have to make a new purchase and the stocked doses had not expired, he said. He believed that more than 1 million doses of Sinovac’s vaccine remained in stock. (TNA)
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