"It is our intent to expand the trial and we are actively discussing a proposal with the FDA. The objective is to enroll a larger safety database which increases the likelihood of detecting rarer events," a spokesperson for Moderna said in a statement. The FDA has said that in the past it has looked for up to some 3,000 trial participants before licensing other vaccines for children, and because of the use of mRNA, the FDA suggested in June that "an appropriate overall pediatric safety database would approach the upper end of this range." Both Moderna and Pfizer have announced clinical trials of doses of their COVID-19 vaccine shots to be tested in children as young as 6 months old. Moderna says it could be in position to seek FDA emergency authorization by the winter for these groups, which could allow its doses to be given to younger American children as early as next year. The drug maker announced last month that it had filed for emergency use authorization to vaccinate adolescents as young as 12.