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Pfizer will ship fewer vials of COVID-19 vaccine to the US after extra doses are discovered.
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The company pressed the FDA to formally recognize the extra doses found in each bottle.
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Some pharmacists say they are still struggling to extract the extra doses.
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Last month, pharmacists across the United States found a pleasant surprise to find that the vials of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine contained extra doses.
As a result, Pfizer will now send fewer vials of vaccine to the United States to make up for it, according to a New York Times report. The pharmaceutical company has pledged to supply 200 million doses of vaccines to the United States by the end of July. The extra doses found in the initial allocations will now count towards that number.
Pfizer charges for the dose and for weeks allegedly pressured employees of the US Food and Drug Administration to formally acknowledge that the bottles contain six (and sometimes seven) doses, instead of five.
Earlier this month, the FDA obliged, changing the wording of the vaccine’s emergency use authorization, according to The Times. Pfizer officials argued that the distinction was necessary, since the federal government contract required payment by dose.
But some pharmacists say they had a hard time extracting those extra doses, because that process requires a special syringe.
“There is now more pressure to make sure you get your sixth dose,” Michael Ganio, senior director of quality and pharmaceutical practice at the American Society of Healthcare Pharmacists, told The Times.
Pfizer’s chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla, said the sixth extra dose allows the company to further extend its supply of vaccines. Pfizer originally estimated that it could manufacture 1.3 billion doses in 2021, but the discovery of extra doses played an important role in the company’s most recent estimate of two billion doses by the end of the year.
When pharmacists discovered the extra doses, there was excitement and confusion. Some even threw away the extra doses because they were not allowed to use them, according to the newspaper. But the FDA soon offered permission and instructions for using the extra doses.
At the time, the extra doses seemed to suggest that instead of the 100 million doses that Pfizer had originally promised the US by the end of March, the country could end up with up to 120 million, good news amid the chaotic launch of the vaccine , but Pfizer required extra doses to be counted as part of its existing contract.
“Pfizer is going to make a lot of money from these vaccines, and the United States government took a large part of the initial risk in this case, so I’m not sure why Pfizer didn’t just continue to supply as planned, even if it meant a little excess offer, “Dr. Aaron S. Kesselheim, professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, told The Times.
After weeks of reported language dispute between Pfizer and the FDA, the agency formally changed the vaccine’s information leaflet to specify that six doses were included in each vial.
The number of Pfizer vaccines allocated to each state could be based on this new language starting next week, the Times reported.
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