Can provide up to 500,000 additional doses – VG

Last week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine contains more doses than expected.

Pharmacists’ comments suggest that the vials can hold six to seven doses, rather than five as indicated on the package, according to Politico.

At the same time, the FDA recommended using these residual doses, saying that in this way they can increase vaccination in the United States by up to 40 percent.

Pfizer press director Joachim Henriksen confirms to VG that the vials, that is, the glass containers in which the vaccine is stored, may contain more doses than expected.

– When you use narrow syringe tips with a small dead volume, you can get more than five doses out of the vial, he says.

Read all about vaccines in the special of VG vaccines.

The main reason, Henriksen explains, is that the syringes have different dead volumes.

Some syringes “pull” a little more fluid, which remains in the syringe after vaccination. Therefore, the company fills the vials so that you can be sure that in practice there are at least five doses in each glass.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency: – Professionally sound

Pfizer has no idea whether residual doses should be used. It is up to the anti-drug authorities to decide, emphasizes the press officer.

– Both parts fit us perfectly, but it must be taken into account that in the documentation this vial is intended for five doses.

The question of how many doses you can get from each vial is something we are considering now, department director Line Vold at the National Institute of Public Health tells VG.

– It will have a series of practical consequences if we want to change this and, in that case, we must, for example, make our own guides for those who will use vaccines abroad.

Steinar Madsen, Medical Director of the Norwegian Medicines Agency, explains it as follows:

• The vaccine vials contain enough for five doses.
• Each dose is 0.3 ml.
• Five doses correspond to 1.5 ml, that is, 0.75 ml should remain in the glass.
• Something is used because the tip of the syringe does not empty during the injection

– But attempts have been made to show that it is generally okay to take six doses if necessary. This is not approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), but the FDA has said it is fine professionally. This is also our advice to FHI, says Madsen.

He adds that there is no difference between five and six doses, as long as the sixth dose is a full 0.3 ml dose.

– Not approved, but professionally sound. And therefore we do not warn against such a practice, says the director.

Madsen notes that it is FHI that is responsible for the practical implementation of vaccination and that it may have to take a position on this possibility.

– But like I said, 500,000 can become 600,000 doses, he says.

Norway buys vaccines with the EU through Sweden. Through the agreement it applies with Pfizer, we are expected to receive approximately 500,000 doses of vaccines in the first quarter, Sweden’s vaccine coordinator told VG in early December. The total volume of the deal is 2.5 million, he said.

If you can withdraw an extra dose from all the vials, you’ll get around 500,000 extra doses in total, enough to vaccinate 250,000 people.

You need two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The second should be established three weeks after the first.

Vaccination begins on Christmas Eve

The Pfizer vaccine was approved by the EU Commission on Tuesday and will soon arrive in Norway. The health authorities anticipate that the first vaccination will begin in seven municipalities in the eastern part of the country as of December 27. This first pack is 9750 doses, available December 26.

Shortly after, on the third day of Christmas, Norway receives the first normal delivery of approximately 40,000 doses. These doses are stored in cold rooms, before being distributed to all the municipalities of the country according to the number of inhabitants in the risk groups. Vaccination can start from the first week and deliveries will continue weekly.

The vaccine remains at minus 70 degrees for six months, but only for five days after being thawed to be shipped to municipalities. Because municipalities will only set the first dose up front and cannot store vaccines themselves until the second has to be set, they will receive about half the doses in the first three weeks, FHI explained.

In this case, you can see how many doses of vaccine from the first large pack have been reserved for your municipality.

Check where you are in the vaccine queue when taking this test.

Eventually, we will likely have several vaccines in Norway at the same time. Read more about the six vaccine candidates that are relevant to Norway by clicking on them below: