Regulator extends life of Pfizer’s jabs

SA’s medicines regulator has extended the shelf life of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine by six months, giving the health department a narrow window in which to administer more than 7-million jabs before they expire.

SA’s medicines regulator has extended the shelf life of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine by a further six months, giving the health department a narrow window in which to administer more than 7-million jabs before they expire.

Health minister Joe Phaahla told parliament in June that the government had 7.48-million doses of expired Pfizer vaccines on hand, worth an estimated R1.2bn, which would go to waste unless the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra) agreed to the manufacturer’s request to extend their shelf life.

Provinces were instructed to stop administering Pfizer jabs at the end of April and offer only those manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (J&J).

In a circular issued to provinces on Tuesday, the department’s chief director for sectorwide procurement, Khadija Jamaloodien, said Pfizer had submitted new stability data to Sahpra that had enabled an extension of the shelf life of its Covid-19 vaccines from 18 months to 24 months.

The development opens the way for provincial health departments to resume provision of these jabs. The circular stipulates the expiry date for 21 different batches of the vaccines, which range from July 31 to October 31, but does not indicate the volume of each batch.

A key question now is whether the vaccines will be dispensed solely in the public sector or whether private healthcare providers will be brought back on board. Private sector facilities initially played an integral part in SA’s mass Covid19 vaccination programme but gradually wound down their sites as demand for shots fell.

NEW CONDITIONS

Private sector facilities cannot currently procure any Covid-19 vaccines, as provincial health departments have yet to finalise service-level agreements with private providers. These are required to meet the new conditions set by the health department, which will provide the vaccines free of charge and allow private sector sites to charge an administration fee.

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Pharmacy Association CEO Jackie Maimin said that including the private sector would help shore up demand. “Interest in vaccinations for Covid-19 is very low, and if people think they must go and wait at a public facility they just won’t bother to go. We need to make these vaccines available in as many primary healthcare settings as possible, and link boosters to everyday clinic visits the only way to drive demand in my opinion,” she said.

The health department had not responded to Business Day’s questions at the time of publication. It previously said it could resume administering Pfizer vaccines within days of getting the green light from Sahpra.

A Pfizer spokesperson confirmed Sahpra had approved its request to extend the expiry date of the vaccines but declined to comment further.

The department also bought large quantities of J&J’s Covid-19 shot and estimates 20.8-million doses worth R2.68bn may go to waste. A third of these shots will expire by the end of August and the remainder will have all expired by the end of February 2024, according to deputy director-general for National Health Insurance Nicholas Crisp, who also heads the Covid-19 vaccination programme.

THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT NOW HAS A NARROW WINDOW TO ADMINISTER MORE THAN 7-MILLION JABS