A medical worker prepares a Pfizer vaccine for a student in northern Vĩnh Phúc Province. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — The Ministry of Health has announced the extension of an additional three months to the shelf-life of six more batches of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

The extension will be applied for the batches of Pfizer vaccines with imprinted expiry dates in October, November and December 2021, and January, February and March 2022.

The expiry extension of the Pfizer vaccine is based on international norms and will not affect the quality and efficiency of the vaccine, according to the ministry.

Based on scientific data on assessing the stability of the Pfizer vaccine updated by Pfizer Vietnam and extension approval made by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Drug Administration of Việt Nam on October 22 made the decision on the extension of the vaccine at the storage condition of -90 to -60 degrees Celsius.

All Pfizer vaccine batches with expiration dates of the six months are automatically extended to nine months after the extension approval was made by the FDA on August 22 and EMA on September 10.

The new nine-month expiry date of the Pfizer vaccine is applied globally and the vaccines can still be used for all eligible people, including children aged 12 and older.

The Ministry of Health requested the People’s Committees of localities to urgently carry out vaccination programmes in line with the ministry’s guidelines.

Earlier, the Drug Administration of Việt Nam decided to extend the expiry dates of the two batches of Pfizer vaccines, numbered 124001 and 123002, from six months to nine months.

The Pfizer vaccine was approved for emergency use for the adult population in Việt Nam by the Ministry of Health on June 12, 2021. — VNS