EMA approves extraction of six doses of Pfizer vaccine from five-dose vials

Certain hospitals in Ireland have managed to extract seven doses from Pfizer-BioNtech vials

Vaccine manufacturers tend to put a certain amount of ‘overage’ into each vial to ensure the stated doses can be obtained. Picture: Getty

The European Medicines Agency has approved the extraction of six doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine from vials that were originally intended to have just five doses, potentially adding over a million additional vaccine doses to Ireland’s supply over the coming months.

The news comes as the European Commission secured another 300 million pre-ordered doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for member states. This will bring the total volume of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccines secured for EU countries ...