According to Moderna, its vaccine against COVID-19 is effective in adolescents

Moderna's anti-COVID-19 vaccine is effective in adolescents between 12 and 17 years old, according to the pharmaceutical company in a press release.

For this reason, the company plans to ask the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize the vaccine for this age group in early June.

Moderna also notes that none of the teenagers who received two shots of its vaccine in a clinical trial developed COVID-19, and that there were no safety concerns either.

In the trials, two-thirds received the vaccine and one-third received placebo injections. There were four cases of COVID-19 in the placebo group.

Even 14 days after the first dose, the vaccine was 93 percent effective against milder forms of the disease in this group, according to the company.

For now, the Moderna vaccine is applied to people over 18 years of age. If the FDA authorizes its use for the population aged 12 and older, it would be the second COVID-19 vaccine available for children under 18 years of age.

For its part, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was initially authorized for groups ages 16 and older, and the FDA approved its use in children ages 12 to 15 in May.

“The more vaccines we have to protect adolescents from COVID-19, the better,” Kristin Oliver, a pediatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, told The New York Times.

Now those in charge of Moderna will have to wait for authorization from the FDA to begin administering the vaccine to adolescents.