FDA to check pharmacies’ capacity to store bivalent jabs

MANILA, Philippines — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will conduct inspection of pharmacies and check if they have the capacity to store and sell the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccine that was recently issued a certificate of product registration (CPR).

FDA director general Samuel Zacate said they are now streamlining the process of inspection of these pharmacies so they can easily confirm if indeed these establishments can properly refrigerate the vaccines.

“We will conduct inspection to see if they are capacitated. At the same time, there are also pharmacies with cold storage facilities already,” Zacate said at a press briefing in Quezon City yesterday. “Because of the storage requirements of these bivalent vaccines, a pharmacy must have a special storage facility.”

“We will just be waiting for the market authorization holder to import the product and afterwards, it is set for (commercial) distribution, and then people can avail themselves of it,” he said.

The FDA chief said they expect the vaccine to be brought here either this month or next month.On June 26, the FDA announced that it has granted a CPR for Pfizer’s bivalent shots, which can be received by people from ages 12 and above.

The FDA granted the CPR with five years validity after a comprehensive evaluation process, extensive clinical trials and thorough assessment of all available scientific data and information provided by the vaccine manufacturer and comprehensive evaluation process.

Latest data issued by the Department of Health (DOH) showed that only 48,354 people from the priority groups A1 and A2 have received for free the Pfizer bivalent COVID-19 vaccines donated by the Lithuanian government.

The country received the donation on June 3.The DOH said there were 43,464 health care workers (A1) and 4,890 senior citizens (A2) who were already given bivalent vaccines as third booster dose.

People who want the bivalent jabs will now have to pay for it after the government lifted the COVID state of calamity nationwide.