QCOSTARICA – Farmanova S.A. is the first to be authorized by the Ministry of Health to distribute the covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in private pharmacies in Costa Rica, receiving endorsement this Monday, January 31.
The authorization applies immediately.
The sale of this vaccine on the private market will guarantee access to more people. The Health clarified it has nothing to do with the timing of the imports or with the prices they may have in the country.
“The legal representative of the pharmaceutical company and the authorized drugstores are instructed to ensure that the vaccine is distributed with the approved labeling and that adequate storage and cold chain are maintained until they are delivered to the vaccination sites.
“In the same way, they must inform the Centro Nacional de Farmacovigilancia cualquier Evento Supuestamente Atribuible a la vacunación e Inmunización (Esavi) – National Pharmacovigilance Center of any Event Supposedly Attributable to vaccination and Immunization, and keep a record of all vaccine placements through Sinovac, a system available in all establishments authorized to provide the service,” reported Health.
Vaccination against covid-19 began in Costa Rica on December 24, 2020, with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The first doses (43,200) of AstraZeneca arrived, through the Covax initiative, in Costa Rica on April 7, 2021, and a day later its use was approved by the Ministry of Health after a review of the recommendations of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The first to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine was Health Minister Daniel Salas Peraza, along with other personnel from the Ministry of Health and the Caja Costarricense de Seguro Social (CCSS), on April 19.
As of January 25, 2022, more than 8.2 million doses against covid had been applied in Costa Rica, between first, second and third doses, according to data from the CCSS, both of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine.
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