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WASHINGTON – Government will not extend the shelf life of hundreds of thousands of unused Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine doses, but may soon extend the shelf life of millions of Moderna vaccine doses, according to internal email obtained by NBC News.
In an email sent to state health officials and healthcare providers on Friday morning, the Centers for Disease Control said the Food and Drug Administration would not further extend the shelf life of Johnson & # 39; s vaccines. Johnson being on state shelves across the country, leading to the potential waste of hundreds of thousands of doses.
The CDC has asked officials and healthcare providers to check their Covid vaccine inventories for “many batches” of expired Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses and told them that despite previous dose shelf life extensions Johnson & Johnson, the FDA will take no further action.
The email says, “There will be no more expansion.”
In the same post, the notified CDC says the FDA will likely extend the expiration date for millions of Moderna vaccine doses. Two sources who did not want to be identified told NBC News that an extension for Moderna would likely add up to two months to the shelf life of vaccine doses.
The FDA returned the inquiries to the companies and declined to comment on the email. Moderna declined to comment. Johnson & Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On July 28, the FDA extended the shelf life of J&J doses to six months from manufacture. Doses have been rolled out to states in batches since the vaccine was approved in late February. Unused doses sent to states in April or earlier are expected to expire soon.
It is not known how many doses of J&J could be wasted, but the federal government has shipped 22 million doses to the states and only 15 million have been administered so far, according to data from the CDC website.
West Virginia Covid Czar Dr Clay Marsh said the state recently eliminated 9,000 doses of J&J. Virginia health officials told NBC News they had 26,936 doses of J&J on the shelves and Washington state had 57,883 doses as of September 27. Arkansas had 11,284, Rhode Island had 6,825 this morning according to state officials.
Most states stopped ordering new J&J vaccines a few months ago and demand has not been strong, according to state health officials.
It is possible that the doses on the shelves could be used as booster shots, but only if the company files a quick clearance request and the FDA takes action by providing emergency use clearance for a recall. NOT A WORD.
As of September 21, Johnson & Johnson said it has provided all available recall data to the FDA, but no official filing has yet taken place. For the recall approval to occur, the company would have to file a request, FDA officials would need to review the data, and the CDC’s advisory committee would have to meet to make a decision.
Late Friday afternoon, the FDA announced that an agency advisory committee would meet in mid-October to discuss recalls for the J&J and Moderna vaccines.
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