EU regulator backs Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for adolescents

The European Medicines Agency's endorsement comes weeks after it began evaluating extending use of the vaccine to include 12- to 15-year-olds.

Europe's medicines regulator on Friday backed the use of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, paving way for a broader roll-out in the region after similar clearances in the United States and Canada. The European Medicines Agency's endorsement comes weeks after it began evaluating extending use of the vaccine, developed with Germany's BioNTech, to include 12- to 15-year-olds. It is already being used in the European Union for those aged 16 and older. The EMA said two doses were required in the 12-15 age group and should be administered with an interval of at least three weeks. It is now up to individual EU states to decide if and when to offer the vaccine to teenagers, it added.