By Prior Beharry
THE 80 vials of Pfizer vaccines brought into Trinidad and Tobago over the weekend are lacking proper documentation.
And they are now in the charge of the Ministry of Health and being stored at a bonded facility.
This was revealed by Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram at the virtual presser of the Ministry of Health on Monday.
He said Customs and Excise was alerted when the vaccines landed at the airport and the principal pharmacist went to the airport and took control of the vaccines and they were now in a bonded facility.
Dr Parasram said, “It is bonded pending use.”
He added, “What we are waiting for is some documentation that the Ministry of National Security has to provide to us via the US from their counterpart agency.”
Dr Parasram said the information related to invoicing “which is part and parcel of the importation requirements.”
He said the ministry was also awaiting regulatory documents such as a clinical dossier which will show where the Pfizer vaccines were manufactured.
Dr Parasram said, “It will be considered by the Drug Advisory Committee and then we can say whether it is a vaccine that can be utilised in T&T.”
When asked by AZPNews.com why the relevant documents weren’t brought in like was the case with AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines, Dr Parasram referred the question to the Ministry of National Security.
National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds is quoted in the Guardian on Monday as saying that these vaccines were a separate arrangement for National Security and had nothing to do with other arrangements.
Dr Parasram said he did not know the exact time when the Health Ministry was notified about the arrival of the vaccines.
He said there were multiple health officials involved including the principal pharmacist and the Food and Drug Department.
Dr Parasram said, “I don’t have an exact time when they were notified to be honest.
“There have been donations of multiple vaccines from different countries as you all have known over the last couple of weeks in particular but there have been instances when there have been short notices as well for them in terms of time.
“All those vaccines would have gone to the Ministry of Health and into the hands of the principal pharmacist.”
