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Home » Pfizer to Employ Its Own Strategy for Vaccine Distribution After Initial Doses
Pfizer to Employ Its Own Strategy for Vaccine Distribution After Initial Doses
November 4, 2020
Pfizer said it intends to handle the distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine itself after the federal government’s initial distribution to priority populations is completed.
Pfizer, which expects to file an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) request for its candidate, BNT162, in about two weeks (DID, Oct. 28), has worked with the federal government on its own distribution plan, a Pfizer spokesperson told FDAnews. In July, the U.S. government awarded a $1.95 billion contract for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that secures 100 million doses with an option for half a billion more (DID, July 23).
The federal government has contracts with McKesson, the nation’s largest flu vaccine distributor, and other distributors for vaccine distribution and will provide initial doses to patients and locations it has designated, which will likely include frontline healthcare workers and elderly/at-risk patients in hospitals, outpatient clinics, community vaccination centers and pharmacies.
But after that, Pfizer will go with its own approach and it intends to distribute the vaccine directly from its Kalamazoo, Mich., facility — the company’s largest manufacturing site — to point-of-care sites, as well as from its Pleasant Prairie, Wisc., distribution center, the Pfizer spokesperson said.
McKesson was selected by the federal government as a “central distributor” for COVID-19 vaccines and supplies in August (DID, Aug. 17). Under the Operation Warp Speed arrangement and at the direction of the government, McKesson will distribute COVID-19 vaccines that must be shipped refrigerated or frozen to point-of-care sites.
However, McKesson has publicly said that it does not have the capability to handle storage and delivery for vaccines that must be frozen at or below -60 degree Celsius (-76 degrees Fahrenheit), which does not meet the specifications Pfizer requires for its vaccine storage and distribution.
Pfizer already has the capability for cold-chain shipping of its vaccine and has developed “detailed logistical plans and tools to support effective vaccine transport, storage and continuous temperature monitoring” in addition to special packaging and storage technology for vaccination sites that will keep doses good for 10 days, the spokesperson said. The vaccine doses will be shipped using dry ice to maintain a temperature of -75 degrees Celsius (-103 degrees Fahrenheit) with an allowable range of plus or minus 15 degrees.
“Our distribution model as agreed with the U.S. government is built on a flexible just-in-time system which will ship the frozen vials directly from our plants to the point of vaccination,” the Pfizer spokesperson said. “We have specially designed, temperature-controlled shippers utilizing dry ice to maintain recommended storage condition for up to 10 days.” — James Miessler
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