By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing – BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX) shares were up more than 6% Friday after its proposal to be allowed to provide COVID-19 vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds in the UK got past the country’s medicine regulator.
The proposal now needs the nod of the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization. It will go to the Health and Social Care department from there.
The company had last Friday it secured approval from the European Medicines Agency for use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children of the same age group.
Children aged 12-15 years are already receiving the shot in the U.S.
Pfizer and BioNTech have so far committed to delivering 2.4 billion doses of the vaccine through 2023 to various countries.
The vaccine is based on BioNTech's proprietary mRNA technology. The German company has a tie-up with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to make and market the vaccine in geographies mutually distributed between the two.