Clare pharmacists’ surprise at order to cease Janssen vaccine

CLARE pharmacists have expressed their surprise with the decision to cease the Janssen Covid-19 vaccination programme earlier this month in view of the huge demand for the one-dose vaccine, writes Dan Danaher.

A letter from the HSE’s National Immunisation Office, which was sent on August 11, said that any unused or expired AstraZeneca or Janssen vaccines should be returned and could be removed from fridges.

“As the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine single dose programme is now nearing completion, and Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) second dose vaccines have now nearly all been administered, any residual vaccines which are not required to complete cohorts should be returned to national cold chain service.

“These vaccines can be removed from the fridge and prepared for return, but they must be retained in a secure area that can only be accessed by appropriate personnel.

“New patients are not currently being enrolled to receive Covid-19 Janssen and AstraZeneca. It is not anticipated that there will be significant quantities of vaccine that will be unused.”

A group of pharmacists working in mass vaccination centres around the country wrote to the Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly warning that thousands of Covid-19 vaccines are going to waste despite the fact many are still waiting to be inoculated.

Brendan Rochford of Rochford Pharmacy, Ennis, confirmed they also received the same letter from the HSE regarding the return of Janssen vaccines.

However it didn’t apply to the pharmacy at that stage as they had administered all of the vaccines they had received within days of receiving them.

“We had a very large waiting list in our pharmacies since we started vaccinations in July and we could have administered hundreds and hundreds more vaccines if we had access to them at that time.

“To hear now that there are thousands of vaccines that could potentially go to waste is disappointing. It would be interesting to know if these vaccines were in the country at the time during July when pharmacies were overrun with waiting lists and we didn’t have enough vaccines to meet demand.” – Brendan Rochford, pharmacist.

“We administered hundreds of Janssen single shot vaccines as quickly as possible after we received supplies from the HSE but we didn’t receive enough to meet the demand we had at that time.”

Responding to Clare Champion queries, the HSE stated Covax, a global facility for the distribution of vaccines, will only take receipt of vaccines directly from the manufacturer where chain of custody can be guaranteed.

Covax is very reluctant to take vaccines from stock held in donor countries due to the regulatory and logistical challenges involved.

The recent change in guidance for AstraZeneca and Janssen resulted in the phasing out of the administration of these vaccines for people under 50 years of age, as Ireland now has ample supply of mRNA vaccines.

“The Government is currently actively considering how to allocate any surplus vaccine not required in Ireland. AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines which are close to expiry and had already been distributed to our Vaccination Centres are being recalled by our National Immunisation Office as they can no longer form part of Ireland’s vaccination programme .

“These will be small in number, relative to the over 6.5 million vaccines administered in Ireland. As these vaccines have already been distributed from our central cold chain storage unit they would not be eligible for distribution through the COVAX programme or indeed through any future bi-lateral agreement with a third country.

“Given the number of vaccination channels there will inevitably be a small number of unused vaccines that have been distributed at the end of the programme. The programme continues to minimise the risk of unused vaccines through its supply chain management systems.”

Following the announcement to cease the Janssen vaccination programme, Mr Rochford recalled the pharmacy received supplies of the Pfizer vaccine, but acknowledged there were significant delays in deliveries. However, in recent days supplies have increased significantly.

“We have vaccination appointments available at both our Parnell Street and Francis Street pharmacies in Ennis this week. We even have our own online booking system on our website,” he explained.

Marie Kelly owner of Kelly Pharmacy Miltown Malbay recalled the pharmacy was expecting to get a supply of 150 Janssen vaccines on Monday, August 16 to cater for people who were booked for appointments.

While the pharmacy did receive email communication stating there would be a future supply issue with the Janssen vaccine, she said it was not very clear about what would be provided on Monday, August 16.

The pharmacy weren’t sure of the exact situation until none of the schedule Janssen vaccines arrived on August 16. .

She told the Clare Champion the pharmacy had to rejig appointments to facilitate patients in view of the change in the vaccination programme.

“We were surprised with the decision to cease the Janssen vaccine as there was a big demand for it because it was a one-shot vaccine, it was very convenient and people were fully protected two weeks after being innoculated.”

A number of other Clare pharmacists told the Clare Champion any of their Janssen vaccines didn’t go to waste after the decision as they were all used up due to the huge demand for this one shot innoculation. Some of them also expressed surprise with this NIC’s decsion.

In a statement issued to the Clare Champion, the Irish Pharmacy Union recalled it raised this issue with the HSE several weeks ago and the HSE outlined the reasons why the vaccines couldn’t be redistributed.

“However, considering that when pharmacies were administering the Janssen vaccine there was huge demand and long waiting lists for vaccines in pharmacies, it’s unfortunate that those vaccines couldn’t at that stage have been allocated to pharmacies.”