Piedmont: the anti Covid vaccine in pharmacies

started last December 27: vaccines can also be made in pharmacies. Together with general practitioners, pharmacists will also be able to administer the dose in Piedmont. The agreement with Federfarma Piemonte and Assofarm was signed on Tuesday 19 January, at the headquarters of the Regional Health Department, in the presence of the councilor Luigi Genesio Icardi. As happened with the green light for vaccination by general practitioners, also in In the case of pharmacists involved in the anti-covid-19 vaccination campaign, it will be necessary to wait for the availability of the AstraZeneca vaccine - or another one with characteristics similar to that developed in the laboratories of the Jenner Institute of the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Oxford Vaccine Group , and the Irbm of Pomezia, which allows it to be stored in normal refrigerators supplied.

When and how?

The authorization of the EMA should arrive by January 29, after which it will take another fifteen days for the passage to the European Commission and then to the Aifa, the Italian drug agency that will detail all aspects, from storage to administration. Then it will be necessary to organize the distribution logistics and start vaccinating. It would be the third anti Covid-19 vaccine to be authorized in the European Union after those of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

According to a first intervention plan, the pharmacists will take care of the storage and distribution of the doses, after having reserved them for general practitioners. The vaccine will be given in a pharmacy, under the supervision of a doctor.

How many doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Italy?

The Commission has purchased 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Of these, 40 million will arrive in Italy during the year, 16 million of which within the first quarter and 24 in the second. A breath of fresh air, considering the hitch in supplies and the international rush to grab more and more doses.

Who will be given the AstraZeneca vaccine and what will be the priorities? This type of vaccine formulated in Oxford should not in fact be authorized for all age groups above 16 or 18. After the green light, the first doses will arrive within two weeks. will have authorized the administration only to individuals under the age of 55, it will be necessary to reorganize the logistics of the vaccination campaign already underway. Only for what concerns the first trimester, on the one hand, we should continue with the administration of the anti Covid-19 serum to the elderly, ie the over 80s and then the over 60s, with only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, on the other. the new AstraZeneca vaccines would be available for the younger groups, which include many of the categories considered most at risk, such as teachers, police forces, public transport drivers and obviously people with previous pathologies but young people.

. A system for the distribution and administration of vaccines which, according to the councilor for health of the Piedmont Region, Luigi Icardi, has proven to work well and which will also be decisive on the Covid-19 front. According to the councilor, this is "a result strategically very important, because it reaffirms the leading role of pharmacists in the "field of territorial medicine, allowing an absolutely capillary and effective vaccination coverage".

the pharmacy is therefore an integral part of the healthcare supply chain, alongside doctors and the Region, always in the "interest and protection of the citizen", declared Massimo Mana, President of Federfarma Piemonte.

However, to have the first results of the Covid-19 vaccine we will have to wait several more weeks.