Pfizer’s vaccine vials hold extra doses
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday that pharmacists can draw additional doses from vials of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, potentially expanding the country’s supply by millions of doses as the Trump administration negotiates with Pfizer to speed up the next round of vaccine deliveries.
The government’s existing supply of the first authorized vaccine can be stretched further after pharmacists began to notice that vials contain more than the expected five doses.
The FDA is in touch with Pfizer about how to handle this issue, the agency said. In the meantime, regulators say those extra doses from a single vial can be used.
“At this time, given the public health emergency, FDA is advising that it is acceptable to use every full
dose obtainable — the sixth, or possibly even a seventh — from each vial, pending resolution of the issue,” an agency spokesman said, confirming news first reported by Politico.
That means the supply of remaining vaccine could be up to 40% greater, though the drugmaker cautions that it’s uncertain how many extra doses are available. The FDA and Pfizer also caution that any leftover vaccine from different vials that is smaller than a full dose should not be mixed together, which experts say risks cross-contamination.
“The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of five doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used,” Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in a statement.
Meanwhile federal health officials said Wednesday they are in talks with Pfizer to purchase tens of millions of additional doses this spring after the drug company said the United States probably would have to wait until summer.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he is “very optimistic” about negotiations in which federal officials are trying to help Pfizer ramp up production to meet the government’s demand for the second quarter of 2021.
“We are working with them to provide them whatever assistance, now that they have identified some of the production challenges,” Mr. Azar said at a Wednesday briefing.
The negotiations come after Pfizer told the Trump administration that other countries have rushed to buy most of the supply that will be available in the second quarter of the year. The federal government turned down an opportunity as recently as October to double its purchase of 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first authorized for use in the United States, over disagreements on delivery dates.
Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the potential for millions of extra doses is “incredibly good news,” especially in light of the dispute over additional PfizerBioNTech vaccines.