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Report: Pharmacies Wasting Too Many COVID-19 Doses

Nonprofit Kaiser Health News is slamming pharmacies for wasting too many COVID-19 vaccination doses, but the problem appears to be centered with large drugstore chains, especially those involved early on with vaccinating long-term care facility residents and staffers. Find out what is being alleged and how pharmacies are responding.

SAN FRANCISCO – Most wasted COVID-19 vaccine doses reported the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were allocated to pharmacies, according to new information.

Kaiser Health News reports that much of that waste occurred with two national pharmacy chains. Of 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into vaccination campaign, CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens for 21%, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined, according to KHN, an endowed nonprofit organization that is an operating program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In fact, the CDC data suggests that the companies have wasted more doses than states, U.S. territories and federal agencies combined, according to the report. Most, 60%, of the unusable doses were Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to be deployed in December and initially required storage at ultracold temperatures.

About a fourth, 23.3%, of the waste occurred among vaccine allocated to states and some large cities, the data shows. KHN’s survey is based on public records requests to the CDC and all 50 states, five major cities, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C.

While the records document more than 200,000 wasted doses, the authors point out that data from 15 states, the District of Columbia and multiple U.S. territories are not included in the CDC’s records. And, in general, waste reporting has been inconsistent.

CVS suggests that much of its waste occurred early in the rollout when the two drugstore chains were tasked with vaccinated residents and staff of long-term care facilities. Walgreens did not quantify when the waste occurred in response to KHN’s questions.

Overall, however, waste of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines has been very small. KHN points out that, as of March 30, the U.S. had delivered roughly 189.5 million vaccine doses and administered 147.6 million, including 7.7 million in long-term care facilities, according to the CDC.

For example, in responding to KHN’s questions, Walgreens said its wastage amounted to less than 0.5% of vaccines the company administered through March 29, which totaled 3 million shots in long-term care facilities and 5.2 million more through the federal government’s retail pharmacy partnership.

“Our goal has always been ensuring every dose of vaccine is used,” spokesperson Kris Lathan said in an email. Before scheduled clinics, she said, Walgreens would base doses it would need on registrations, “which minimized excess and reduced overestimations.”

A CVS spokesperson, Michael DeAngelis, told KHN in an email that wasted doses occurred because of “issues with transportation restrictions, limitations on redirecting unused doses, and other factors.”

“Despite the inherent challenges, our teams were able to limit waste to approximately one dose per onsite vaccination clinic,” DeAngelis added.

CDC spokesperson Kate Fowlie told the news organization that, because the retail pharmacy giants were tasked with administering a large number of doses, “a higher percentage of the overall wastage would not be unexpected, particularly in an early vaccination effort that spanned thousands of locations.”

“Though every effort is made to reduce the volume of wastage in a vaccination program, sometimes it’s necessary to identify doses as ‘waste’ to ensure anyone wanting a vaccine can receive it, as well as to ensure patient safety and vaccine effectiveness,” Fowlie said. The CDC has provided guidance and worked with health departments to train staff members to reduce wastage, and everything possible should be done to avoid wasting shots, she added.

Concerns are that vaccine waste could increase in the coming weeks as efforts are made to inoculate harder-to-reach populations, public health experts say.