By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Pfizer stock (NYSE:PFE) rose nearly 1% in Thursday’s premarket trading after the company asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency authorization for use of its Covid-19 vaccine on children aged 5-11.
The move could help protect more than 28 million people in the U.S. According to The New York Times (NYSE:NYT), the agency has promised to process the request quickly and tentatively scheduled an October 26 meeting to consider it. A ruling is expected between Halloween and Thanksgiving, the NYT said.
Pfizer has proposed giving children one-third of the adult dosage. The company will be looking for a quick approval from the regulator as it rolls out its booster doses for the vulnerable while also facing some challenges.
The company last month secured FDA’s approval to provide booster dose to those 65 and older and to adults at-risk. While the company gets on with that exercise, countries and experts are still debating over the need for a booster after two doses and where it all ends even as many countries are still hugely under-vaccinated.
Also, not just Pfizer but all Covid-vaccine makers, face a potential competition from Merck (NYSE:MRK) which last week said that an experimental drug it is developing could halve risks of hospitalization and death due to the infection.
If approved Merck's antiviral pill could be the world’s first oral medicine for Covid, the company said in a note. Merck plans to seek emergency use authorization in the U.S. as soon as possible.