The U.S. Food and Drug Administration agreed to allow Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to be temporarily stored in normal freezer temperatures, relieving a constraint that has made it hard for some communities to access the vaccine.
The agency announced on Thursday that the Pfizer vaccine can now be transported and stored for up to two weeks at “conventional temperatures” usually found in pharmaceutical freezers.
PFIZER TESTING THIRD DOSE OF VACCINE TO PROTECT AGAINST CORONAVIRUS VARIANTS
Prior to the announcement, the Pfizer vaccine was usually stored in ultra-low temperature freezers between -80 degrees Celsius to -60 degrees Celsius (-112 degrees Fahrenheit to -76 degrees Fahrenheit).
“The alternative temperature for transportation and storage will help ease the burden of procuring ultra-low cold storage equipment for vaccination sites and should help to get vaccine to more sites,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.
The decision follows Pfizer’s submission of data, demonstrating that its vaccine can remain stable after storage of the undiluted vials in standard freezer temperatures for 14 days.
The FDA plans to update its “fact sheet” for healthcare providers to reflect the change.
Pfizer first announced it had a viable vaccine candidate to mitigate the coronavirus last November. Since vaccine distribution first began in the United States on Dec. 14, more than 66 million doses have been administered, about 13.6% of the country’s population.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country is administering more than 1.4 million shots a day. Since the onset of the pandemic, the U.S. has had more than 28 million coronavirus cases and over 500,000 deaths attributed to the virus.
