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* Medical official says health service working on solution
* Regulatory approval needed to split up 975 dose packs
* Pfizer says vaccine can be delivered to four corners of UK
(Recasts, adds quotes, detail)
By Alistair Smout
LONDON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - There is no guarantee that
Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed in
English care homes but the health service and regulator are
working to make it possible, deputy Chief Medical Officer
Jonathan Van-Tam said on Thursday.
Britain became the first country to approve the vaccine
candidate developed by Germany's BioNTech and Pfizer
, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to
begin a crucial mass inoculation programme.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of logistical challenges
in distributing the vaccine, which has to be stored at -70C
(-94F), across the National Health Service (NHS).
Following the emergency approval, roll-out will initially be
focussed on hospitals rather than community settings.
Although it can be kept for five days in a regular fridge,
Van-Tam said there was a limit to how often it can be taken out
of a fridge and put back, with implications for its distribution
to care homes.
"The NHS, the (medicine regulator) MHRA are working really
hard, right now, to try and find a solution, so that we can get
this into care homes if we possibly can... at this point, there
is no absolute assurance of that," he told ITV's "This Morning"
programme.
"One thing we can't do is... end up with a vaccine that's
been handled incorrectly, and then isn't properly viable at the
end of the distribution chain."
Britain has said that care home residents and their carers
are the highest priority to get the vaccine, along with those
over 80, although the doctor who chairs the vaccine committee
that drew up the list has said operational practicalities will
influence the roll-out.
NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said on Wednesday
that the phased programme of roll-out would see 50 hospital hubs
begin to vaccinate those in the highest priority groups.
But he added that there needed to be regulatory approval to
split up the 975 dose packs that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine
arrives in before they could be delivered to care home directly.
"If the MHRA... as we expect they will, give approval for a
safe way of splitting these packs of 975 doses, then, the good
news is that we will be able to start distributing those to care
homes," he said.
Pfizer UK country manager Ben Osborn said the firm had
experience in delivering around 1 billion sterile injectables a
year to 165 countries and territories.
"I sincerely hope that this gives the people of the UK
confidence that we're ready now to deliver the vaccine to all
four corners of our nation," he told journalists on Wednesday.
Philipp Rosenbaum, Senior Infectious Diseases Analyst at
data and analytics firm GlobalData, said that Britain was an
"ideal test bed for the delivery of Pfizer's vaccine."
"The country’s small size, dense population and strong
healthcare infrastructure should mean distribution of the
vaccine with cold chain should go smoothly," he said in a note.
"If problems do arise, this will not bode well for
distribution in countries with longer distances to vaccine
distribution centers (or) less developed infrastructure."
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; additional reporting by Ludwig
Burger in Frankfurt; editing by Michael Holden and Toby Chopra)
