Expiry date of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine extended
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced the extension of the shelf-life of the Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine, known as Moderna, by an additional two months.
The Drug Administration of Vietnam agreed to increase the shelf life of the Moderna vaccine on March 2 from seven months to nine months at storage conditions of between minus 25 and minus 15 degrees Celsius.
This extension is to be applied to batches of the Spikevax vaccine imported into the nation from March 2.
The Ministry of Health affirmed that increasing the shelf life of the Morderna vaccine would not change its quality, safety, or overall efficacy.
Previously, the World Health Organizaion (WHO), European Medicines Agency (EMA), the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA, and drug regulatory agencies in the UK, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland had also authorised a shelf-life extension. This ranges from seven months to nine months for the SPIKEVAX COVID-19 Vaccine.
Moderna contains a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) with instructions to produce a protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, according to EMA.
Moderna is said to be 94% effective against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections. Its safety profile is also similar to Pfizer’s, with fatigue, headaches, and pain around the site of injection among the most often cited side-effects.
