FDA Panel Told Drugstores Key To Covid-19 Vaccine Distribution

The U.S. rollout of vaccines against Covid-19 will require the nation’s thousands of pharmacies to help with distribution, immunization and public health education, a Food and Drug Administration panel assessing vaccine safety and efficacy was told Thursday.

With vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna potentially winning emergency authorizations before the end of the year, the U.S. is simultaneously working on distribution and tracking to make sure Americans are vaccinated via an effective implementation.

And drugstore chains were top of a list presented to the FDA panel Thursday that also include commercial and government health distribution sites at hospitals, doctor’s offices, mobile vaccination vehicles and various state, local and federal health agencies.

“Pharmacies can help increase access to vaccines,” Dr. Janell Routh, a medical officer with the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, told the 25-member of medical experts, that includes infectious disease specialists and biostatisticians Thursday afternoon during the FDA’s all-day panel. “Almost 90% of Americans live within 10-mile radius of a pharmacy.”

During her presentation to the FDA advisory panel on vaccines, she showed a map with thousands of dots noting large chain pharmacies as well as independent drugstores. “This provides a massive footprint to get vaccine out to the public, particularly in those rural communities,” Routh said.

To be sure, Walgreens and CVS alone have a combined nearly 60,000 pharmacists in their more than 19,000 U.S. pharmacies. Add in Rite Aid’s pharmacies, Walmart’s pharmacies, independent drugstore chains and U.S. grocery stores with pharmacies and the potential is there to reach tens of millions of Americans.

“We see pharmacies assisting in all phases of vaccine rollout,” Routh said.  

There are three phases to the U.S. vaccine distribution stage which will start with vulnerable Americans that live in long-term care facilities as well as healthcare workers in these locations.

By phase 2, Covid-19 vaccinations will move to the general public where pharmacies will help via “their large networks,” Routh said. Phase three of vaccine distribution will be when supply is greater than demand and ongoing drugstore networks will be needed.

Given pharmacies already have systems to track their customers and medication adherence, drugstore chains have built-in capabilities to track vaccine uptake just like they do a health insurance claim. This is key given Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines require two dosages several weeks apart and customers may need to be reminded to come back for their second vaccination.

Commercial pharmacies already have a key role in vaccines against the seasonal flu and increasingly provide more immunizations for a variety of diseases. Thus, CDC and FDA also see drugstores having a role in public health education to get Americans to get the Covid-19 vaccines.

“We know that trust and hesitancy are issues,” Routh said. “It’s important to get out front with our messages that are created by the data.”

Watch the full video of Thursday’s all-day long FDA advisory panel on Covid-19 vaccines below: