Kid-jab review any day: Pfizer

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Sunday that clinical-trial data on the efficacy and safety of its COVID-19 vaccine among children ages 5 to 11 will be ready to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration within days.

“I think we are going to submit this data any day, so it’s a question of days, not weeks, and then it’s up to the FDA to be able to review the data and come to their conclusions,” Bourla told ABC News’ “This Week.”

Bourla said the company was prepared to start producing the vaccine immediately.

In clinical trials, children received two injections of Pfizer’s vaccine in a special formulation that amounted to about one-fifth of the dose given to the general population, Bourla said.

“If [government regulators] approve it, we will be ready with our manufacturing to provide this new formulation of the vaccine because the vaccine that the kids will receive . . . is a different formulation,” Bourla said.

Currently, only people ages 12 and older are able to get Pfizer’s vaccine. Moderna’s and Johnson & Johnson’s shots are approved only for ages 18 and older.

Around 13 million children under age 18 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to an American Academy of Pediatrics analysis of CDC data as of Sept. 22.

Meanwhile, the Pfizer chief reiterated that he expects annual COVID shots for everyone may be needed down the road.

“I think the most likely scenario is annual vaccination,” Bourla said. “But we don’t know, really. We need to wait and see the data.”