MANILA, Philippines — Philippine drug regulators on Friday cleared Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old.
Director General Eric Domingo of the Food and Drug Administration told a government briefing they issued the amendment to Moderna's emergency use authorization today.
It came, he said, after a "thorough evaluation of our vaccine [and] regulatory experts."
The US manufacturer got its first EUA in the Philippines in May. By August, it sought to expand its emergency use to include the said age group.
Domingo said usual precautions should be followed in administering the Moderna jab.
But like other mRNA vaccines, he said recipients should also be monitored for "very rare" cases of myocarditis, or the inflammation of the muscle of the heart.
"Definitely with the Delta variant affecting a lot of children, our experts saw the benefit of using the vaccine outweighs the risk," he said.
Still no vaccinations for children
In total, the government is procuring 20 million Moderna doses under a deal inked early this year.
But half a year since inoculation efforts began, only a few doses of the jabs have been delivered.
Philstar.com research showed 4.29 million doses have been sent to the country, most as donation from the COVAX Facility at more than 3 million.
Some 888,000 were government-led procurement while 408,000 were by the by the private sector.
And despite the EUA, the Duterte administration has yet to open vaccinations for adolescents, citing still the limited number of supply.
Official figures on September 1 showed there are now 18.29% or 14.10 million Filipinos fully vaccinated for COVID-19. That's out of the goal of up to 70 million this year.
Some 25.93% or 20 million, meanwhile, have received their initial dose. Apart from Moderna, Pfizer has also received emergency use approval for its COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents.