Tennessee Department of Health (TDOH) officials this week announced they have received shipments of the Merck and Pfizer oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19.
“The Tennessee Department of Health coordinated a distribution plan of molnupiravir and Paxlovid with Walmart pharmacies across the state,” according to a TDOH press release.
“This treatment is free, and Tennesseans can visit www.walmart.com/covidmedication to find a participating Walmart pharmacy near them. Initial supply in the state is limited as the first allocation from the federal government was 5,000 courses of molnupiravir and 1,000 courses of Paxlovid. TDH anticipates additional allocations in the coming weeks as production increases.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for molnupirvar by Merck and an EUA for Paxlovid by Pfizer as oral antiviral treatments of COVID-19, the press release said.
The TDOH press release said nothing about Comirnaty, which is the FDA’s fully approved COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Pfizer.
(TDOH) officials did not say this month whether their agency currently offers the FDA’s fully approved COVID-19 vaccine, which the manufacturer, Pfizer, calls Comirnaty.
TDOH officials did, however, comment on the matter in October.
TDOH officials tweeted in October that the FDA had approved a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Twitter user @RockyTopSaint that month replied to the TDOH with the following tweet:
“Is the FDA approved Comirnaty available in Tennessee?”
And TDOH officials responded.
“The federal gov has a large amount of the originally-labeled vaccine to be distributed before the branded product is released. The vaccine has not changed. It is the same formulation as the EUA vaccine, but for marketing purposes under the BLA is now referred to as Comirnaty,” TDOH officials tweeted.
The FDA first approved Comirnaty in August, according to that agency’s website.
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is authorized for emergency use and is available under the Emergency Use Authorization. The vaccine is a two-dose primary series for individuals 5 years of age and older, as a third primary series dose for individuals 12 years of age and older who have been determined to have certain kinds of immunocompromise, and as a single booster dose for individuals 16 years of age and older at least six months after completing a primary series of the vaccine.
Whether Pfizer distributes Comirnaty is unknown, but the company told The Ohio Star this month that it is still shipping the EUA version of the vaccine.
Though Pfizer says the vaccines are interchangeable, the FDA concedes that the products are “legally distinct.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
