Pharmacies to monitor Moderna jabs

MEDADVISOR is partnering with the University of Western Australia to monitor potential adverse events following vaccination with the Moderna Spikevax vaccine, with about 100 pharmacies to participate in the program.

Hailed as the “first pharmacist-led vaccine pharmacovigilance system,” the platform will deliver real-time monitoring of events to provide critical safety data on the Moderna vaccine as it rolls out in Australia.

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) Chair of the Contemporary Community Pharmacy Practice Community of Special Interest, Dr Fei Sim, said the pharmacy-based system would allow government and industry to better monitor and respond to any adverse effect signals from the Moderna vaccine.

“As a practising pharmacist immuniser and pharmacy owner, I am very pleased that such a system has been developed, and that this is the first system to be implemented by pharmacists,” Dr Sim said.

The system sees patients who have received the Moderna vaccine actively followed up in the ensuing days, with Sim adding that it would ensure pharmacists and their patients are equipped with the most accurate, reliable and up-todate safety information, and will play a significant role in addressing any remaining community vaccination hesitancy.

“Where other pharmacovigilance systems - such as those used for the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines have largely been implemented by General Practice and vaccination hubs, this is the first system to be solely implemented by pharmacists.

“This reinforces the crucial role that pharmacists play as part of Australia’s immunisation workforce, and as custodians of medicine safety,” Dr Sim added.

She noted that the system would feed information into Australia’s national vaccine safety surveillance program, AusVaxSafety.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed on Sat that the first consignment of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines had arrived in Australia.

“We expect that these doses will be distributed to more than 1,800 community pharmacies across the country and put into the arms of Australians in the next week.

“A further 1,800 community pharmacies across the country will start to receive doses the week commencing 27 Sep,” he added.

Australia has an advance purchase agreement with Moderna to secure 25 million doses of Spikevax - 10m this year and 15m in 2022.