Vol.69 No.5 September 2021
Vaccine management and preparation methods for the COVID-19 vaccine tozinameran
1)Department of Infection Control and Prevention, National Cancer Center Hospital, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
2)Department of Pharmacy, National Cancer Center Hospital
Abstract
Vaccination is currently considered as the most promising approach to curb the spread of COVID-19. In Japan, the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer was approved in February 2021, and healthcare workers began to be vaccinated on priority. However, due to the complexity of handling of the vaccine, we considered it necessary to establish standard protocols, including for storage and preparation of the vaccine. As a collaborative vaccination facility, our hospital was involved in vaccinating a large number of healthcare workers and needed to manage a large number of vaccines and vaccine recipients; therefore, we constituted a COVID-19 Vaccination System Construction Working Group composed of professionals from multiple fields, in which pharmacists were in charge of vaccine management and preparation. Vaccines were stored using an investigational drug management system to prevent damage. Vaccine preparation was changed from a one-person operation to a shared operation between pharmacists and nurses, and a procedure was established to prevent preparation errors. As a result, we are able to store a large number of vaccines and carry out a large number of vaccinations efficiently, without any preparation errors.
Key word
COVID-19, vaccination, tozinameran, management
Received
July 5, 2021
Accepted
August 5, 2021
Jpn. J. Chemother. 69 (5): 387-391, 2021
