An announcement has been made by the Food and Drug Administration on April 1, 2021. It has allowed pharma giant Moderna to add 50 percent more vaccine in every vial. The new change will allow the company to increase the speed of the shipments. Till now the company was shipping 10-dose vials and with the new decision by the FDA, there would be 15 dose vials.
It has also given permission to extract 11 doses from the vials which had ten doses. It depended on the availability of certain kinds of syringes and needles. Some of the pharmacies have also said that they already managed to be able to extract extra doses from the existing vials. Peter Marks, the FDA vaccine regulator said that the new revisions that have been made will give a positive impact on the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and will also help to provide vaccines to more communities. Marks added that it will also help to allow the shots to get in to the arms more quickly.
It was also said that distribution of the vaccines to people in a timely manner will help to bring an end to the pandemic quickly. An updated sheet from the FDA has mentioned with in the absence of the proper syringes, it could not be possible to extract more than ten doses from the vial that were or original size. The agency has also allowed the vaccine by Moderna to be kept at room temperature for 24 hours which is up from 12 hours. After the vial is opened, the vaccine can be administered in the next 12 hours which is an increase from six hours.
Stephane Bancel, the CEO of Moderna said that they are committed to constantly learn and improve for easier administration of the vaccine with the help of their medical staff. This would also help them to accelerate the immunization programs.
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