Nigeria Says She Received COVID-19 Vaccines With Expired Shelf Life
Health Minister Dr. Osagie Ehanire has reacted to media reports alleging that around 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine expired in Nigeria last month.
He argued that the long-term measure to prevent such incidents is for Nigeria to produce its own vaccines so that the vaccines produced have at least 12 months to expire.
Reuters had reported that an estimated one million COVID-19 vaccines expired in Nigeria last month without being used.
According to two sources who spoke to Reuters, it was one of the largest individual dose losses which shows how difficult it is for African nations to receive injections.
However, Ehanire noted that the donation of surplus Covid-19 vaccines with expired shelf life to developing countries has been a topic of international discussion.
He explained that developing countries like Nigeria accept them because they close the country’s critical vaccine supply gaps and, being free, they save us the low cost of acquiring foreign exchange.
“Some of them had a residual useful life of only a few months that left us very little time, some only weeks, to use them, after deducting the time to transport, clear, distribute and deliver to users. If those vaccines arrive in a row or there are many, occasionally logistical bottlenecks arise, ”Ehanire said Wednesday.
He noted that this dilemma is not typical for Nigeria. He said many low- and middle-income countries have experienced the same, adding that expired vaccines had been recalled and will be destroyed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The minister said the federal Health Ministry shares its experience with partners regularly and now politely declines all donations of vaccines with short shelf lives or those that cannot be delivered on time.
Ehanire explained that Nigeria has used the majority of the more than 10 million short duration doses of Covid-19 vaccines supplied to the country so far, in due time, and saved N16.4B or more than $ 40 million in foreign exchange. .
“The expired vaccines had been recalled prior to that date and will consequently be destroyed by NAFDAC,” he said.
The minister pointed out that the federal government communicated the challenge of the short shelf life, before which some manufacturers offered to extend the shelf life of the vaccine after the fact, by 3 months, a practice that, although accepted by the experts, is rejected by the Federal Ministry of Health.
He explained that Nigeria does not dispense vaccines with an extended validity beyond the labeled expiration date.