The COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by major U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. can now be stored at minus 25 C to minus 15 C for up to two weeks, according to revised storage guidelines for Japan released by the company on Monday.
This will allow the vaccines, initially required to be kept in ultracold freezers, to be handled in normal medical freezers.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry plans to instruct local governments how to store and transport vaccines under the new guidelines.
Pfizer vaccines have been imported at ultracold temperatures of minus 90 C to minus 60 C, and were then to be stored in special freezers distributed to medical institutions across the nation. Initially, the vaccines had to be used within five days after being transported to vaccination venues, where they were kept in refrigerators at temperatures of 2 C to 8 C.
Under the new guidelines, the vaccine can be kept at vaccination sites for two weeks if there are medical freezers allow storage at minus 25 C to minus 15 C. This will facilitate the planning of inoculations by allowing vaccination sites, such as facilities run by family doctors, to store the vaccines for a longer period of time.
Vaccine that has been moved to a normal medical freezer can be returned to ultracold freezers of minus 90 C to minus 60 for storage, according to the revised guidelines, but this can be done only once.
Pfizer made the revisions following an evaluation by Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, which is overseen by the health ministry. The company submitted the data to the health ministry after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved relaxing the conditions for handling the vaccine in the United States in late February.
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