Coronavirus: Moderna seeks EU permission to use its vaccine in children aged 6-11 |

The American pharmaceutical company Moderna today applied for a license in Europe to administer its COVID-19 vaccine to children aged 6-11.

The European Union approved the vaccine in July for adolescents aged 12 to 17, but several countries, including Sweden, stopped using it for young people aged 30 and younger due to rare heart side effects.

Moderna announced in late October that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration needs more time to complete its evaluation for use in the 12-17 age group as it studies the risk of a type of inflammation in the heart called myocarditis after vaccination.

The pharmaceutical industry has delayed applying to the US for the vaccine for children ages 6 to 11 as the US FDA completes its assessment of vaccine use in the 12-17 age group.

Earlier in October, the company said the vaccine was causing a strong immune response in children aged six to 11 and that it planned to submit the data to regulators around the world soon.

Moderna said today that it had applied to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use of a dose of 50 micrograms of the vaccine in children, at half the content used to vaccinate adults.