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The Telegraph
GPs said they can use an additional dose of Covid vaccine in vials ‘at their discretion’ to avoid waste
GPs have received new guidance that allows them to use previously wasted doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, the Telegraph has learned. Each vial of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was expected to contain five doses, allowing five people to receive their first injection of the vaccine when the mass rollout across the country begins. Two doses, given 21 days apart, are needed to protect against the coronavirus. However, GPs have found that it is actually possible to prepare six doses from the vials. Until Thursday, they were advised to discard the extra dose, meaning large volumes of the vaccine had to be disposed of. But in a weekly webinar with NHS England on Thursday, doctors were told they could use the sixth dose “at their discretion.” The guide follows similar advice from the US regulator, the US Food and Drug Administration, which told doctors Wednesday they could use the sixth dose “given the public health emergency.” It is understood that the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK regulator, is looking into the feasibility of pulling six vaccines out of vials and consulting with NHS England on the changes. The GPs on the call described the decision as “only sensible”, after Nikki Kanani, Medical Director of Primary Care for NHS England and NHS Improvement, confirmed that the sixth dose of vaccine could theoretically be administered. However, as in the United States, doctors were told not to mix vaccine doses from two different vials.
