In some places across the U.S., pharmacies have leftover portions of the two COVID-19 vaccines that they can’t use because FDA rules don’t allow them to mix the different products.
Come to find out, pharmacists already mix other drugs, from chemotherapy medicines to flu vaccines, so they’re puzzled as to why they can’t do likewise with the COVID vaccines. “It doesn't look like a lot at the bottom of the bottle," Dr. Stephen Jones, CEO of Inova Health System, told NBC News. "But ultimately, in aggregate, that adds up to a lot of doses that end up being wasted.”
Sometimes only a few drops are left in a vial, while other times close to a full dose is left, which is wasteful because if there isn’t a full dose left, the vial must be discarded, pharmacists say. Pooling the different vaccines could help meet the demand for them, they say. "It's more valuable than liquid gold, truth be told," said Melanie Massiah-White, chief pharmacy officer for Inova Health System, a nonprofit hospital network based in Northern Virginia.
Aside from the fact that the two Covid vaccines are made by different companies in separate facilities, and may not be exactly alike, the FDA says the products shouldn’t be mixed because they don’t contain preservatives to stop microbial growth.
SOURCE: NBC News February 22, 2021