Health Ministry takes U-turn on Pfizer vaccine expiry date 

ECONOMYNEXT –The Health Ministry has taken a U-turn on the expiry date of $40 million US dollar worth Pfizer vaccines and now says the shelf life on the vaccine is in the process of being extended up to 18 months with the advice of Pfizer manufacturer.

The Ministry last month said a Health Ministry-appointed technical committee was evaluating future actions regarding $40 million worth expired Pfizer vaccines which were expected to have expired on December 31.However, the Ministry now says the expiry date is to be extended.

“Pfizer company time to time used to extend the expiry date of Pfizer vaccines. Initially, the expiry date was nine months from the manufacture date and extended up to six,nine and 12 months consecutively,” the Health Ministry said in response to EconomyNext’s Right to Information (RTI) request.

“Now the Pfizer company is in the process of extending the expiry date up to 18 months. This information has been submitted to the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) in Sri Lanka with the available evidence.”

“Until we get the proper directives from the NMRA in this regard, we cannot label the available Pfizer vaccine as an expired lot.”

Earlier, Health Ministry officials have said around six million Pfizer vaccines had expired on December 31 after the expiry date was extended twice from June 30.

Sri Lanka secured 18 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine in January 2022 as the country could not order COVID-19 vaccines on time. Later, the government decided to use the remaining vaccines as booster doses after strong reluctance from the public to receive the third and fourth doses.

Around 6 million doses were not used as of end-2022.The Ministry of Health on two occasions, in consultation with the World Health Organization, extended the shell life of the vaccine till December 31, 2022.

Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella in October told EconomyNext that Sri Lanka was in the process of donating over $40 million worth six million Pfizer vaccines to Myanmar. However, that plan failed and the Ministry sought expert opinions and feedback on the disposal.