MIDDLETOWN — Word had yet to get out about what was in a pharmacy refrigerator at the Walgreens on East Main Road in Middletown Monday afternoon.
Twenty-two Shingrix vaccines were available on a first come, first serve basis. That’s after a district manager told staff to tear up a waiting list earlier this summer. The list was said to have over 300 names on it, according to one store employee who asked not to be named.
They won’t last long.
High demand led British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline to impose order limits and shipping delays for this shingles vaccine likely to soon hit blockbuster status. But GSK and state health officials say supply is improving.
After Shingrix was approved by the FDA in October 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended it for healthy adults aged 50 and older. That gave Shingrix a bigger market share than its rival and the only other shingles vaccine on the market, Merck’s Zostavax, which won FDA approval in 2006 and is recommended for people 60 and older.
Shingrix, which is administered in two doses between two and six months apart, was found to be greater than 90% effective at reducing the risk of developing shingles and a painful complication of the disease known as postherpetic neuralgia in clinical trials compared to Zostavax. Administered in a single dose, Zostavax was shown to reduce the risk of developing shingles by 51% and a painful complication of the disease known as postherpetic neuralgia by 67%.
The typical timeframe for an adult vaccine to hit the market is nine to 12 months but Shingrix’s uptake took just four months, said GSK spokesman Sean Clements. The timing of the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendation of Shingrix over Zostavax, insurance coverage in both Medicare and commercial plans, and the enthusiastic response of pharmacies and health care providers to stock and administer the vaccine all played a role in the rapid pace of the launch.
“We continue to expand and accelerate capacity to deliver a significant increase in doses in 2019 compared to 2018,” Clements said via email.
Tricia Washburn, chief of the Office of Immunization at the R.I. Department of Health, said she makes occasional calls around to different pharmacies and supermarket to survey where Shingrix is available in the state. While still limited, supplies have improved compared to six to eight months ago, she said. In June, the CDC notified the state that GSK has been able to increase production and that allocations of Shingrix are increasing.
“We should start to see some of these shortages and delays become more minimized as we get later into 2019,” Washburn said.
Some pharmacies continue to maintain a waiting list while others have a first come, first serve policy.
“I’ve learned just a couple weeks ago that two CVS [Health Corp.] pharmacies had two different policies, one had a waiting list and one had first come, first serve,” Washburn said. “They were located in East Greenwich.”
CVS MinuteClinic locations are getting shipments regularly, said Christine Cramer, the company’s senior director of corporate communications.
“Per CDC guidance, CVS is prioritizing patients that need their second dose prior to administering to patients requesting their first dose.” Cramer wrote in an email. Patients are encouraged to call their local store and be added to a Shingrix request list. The patient will be contacted when doses are available and the patient is next on the request list.”
Janine Weisman is a PBN contributing writer.
