BERLIN / COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Germany weighed in on Monday whether it would delay the administration of a second dose of BioNTech and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to push scarce supplies further, following a similar move by Gran Brittany last week.
Separately, Denmark on Monday approved a delay of up to six weeks between the first and second shots of the vaccine.
In Berlin, the health ministry was seeking the opinion of an independent vaccination commission on whether it would delay a second shot beyond the current 42-day deadline, according to a one-page document seen by Reuters on Monday.
The move came amid criticism of Health Minister Jens Spahn, including his conservative political allies, that Germany has not gotten enough vaccines and has been too slow to step up its national inoculation campaign.
Spahn told his Christian Democrat union on Monday at a closed-door meeting he hoped to offer vaccines this summer to everyone in Germany once the vaccines have obtained regulatory approval, according to sources who attended.
Some German health experts have welcomed Britain’s decision to delay the administration of a second dose of the BioNTech / Pfizer shot, which comes when governments try to provide coronavirus protection to as many people as possible, giving them one shot and delaying a second.
“Given the current shortage of vaccines and the very high number of infections and hospitalizations (in Germany), a strategy in which as many people as possible are vaccinated as soon as possible is more effective,” Leif-Erik said. Sander, head of the vaccine research team at Charité Hospital in Berlin.
However, BioNTech and Pfizer noted in a joint statement the lack of trial data to support the delay of the second dose.
“Vaccine safety and efficacy have not been evaluated in different dosing schedules, as most trial participants received the second dose within the window specified in the study design,” the companies said, referring to a primary feature and a boost in three weeks apart.
“There is no data to show that protection after the first dose is maintained after 21 days.”
The European Medicines Agency stated that a maximum interval of 42 days should be observed between the first and second shots of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for complete protection.
According to the latest daily update from the Robert Koch Institute, Germany has vaccinated some 239,000 people since it began its campaign on December 27, well below the 1.3 million doses delivered at the end of 2020.
By comparison, Britain has administered more than a million COVID-19 vaccines so far, more than the rest of Europe, Health Minister Matt Hancock said.
DANISH MOVEMENT
The Danish Health Authority will allow it to wait up to six weeks before administering a second dose, its head, Soren Brostrom, told Ritzau on Monday, who reported locally, after examining vaccine data.
But Brostrom said the original guidelines should be followed to wait just three to four weeks whenever possible.
“If more than six weeks pass, we cannot see the scientific evidence that it is safely protected. Therefore, we cannot recommend it, “Brostrom added.
As of Monday, a total of 46,975 Danes had received the first shot from Pfizer-BioNTech, mostly health workers and the elderly.
Although no longer interval between shots in clinical trials has been tested, some scientists said it was a sensible plan given the extraordinary circumstances.
European Union approval for a Moderna vaccine, scheduled for this week, is expected to add 1.5 million supply doses over the coming weeks, according to the German Health Ministry document.
In total, Germany, which has around 83 million people, is expected to get 50 million doses of the Modern shot this year under EU-wide recruitment contracts.
As for the AstraZeneca vaccine approved last week by the UK, the German Ministry of Health said the European Medicines Agency’s ongoing review was being done under “high pressure”.
“The goal is, as soon as possible, to decide the path to follow and the scope of approval” for the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the document.
Additional reports by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen in Copenhagen; writing by Douglas Busvine and Josephine Mason; edition by Thomas Seythal, Maria Sheahan and Gareth Jones