Spain discarding thousands of Pfizer vaccine doses for lack of right syringes

The EU medicines regulator said in a guidance update on January 8 that low dead-volume syringes and needles with more effective space than standards ones must be used to get full six doses.

Spain does not have enough right syringes and needles to extract the sixth dose from a Pfizer anti-coronavirus vaccine vial, resulting in thousands of doses going to waste, doctors have complained.

Concerns are that the ambiguous six doses will soon be factored in delivery numbers. (REUTERS)

The EU medicines regulator said in a guidance update on January 8 that low dead-volume syringes and needles with more effective space than standards ones must be used to get full six doses. It warned that pooling contents from two vials to make up a full 0.3 ml dose was not permitted.

Insufficient supplies of low dead-space equipment have been reported in the capital of Madrid, the southern Andalusia region and Catalonia. The Catalan health officials say a six dose is on average extracted from only two out of three vials.

Concerns are that the ambiguous six doses will soon be factored in delivery numbers.

"The Pfizer company will begin a review process on January 25 after which EU member states will continue receiving the same number of doses but in fewer vials," the Spanish health ministry said.