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The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has issued a new policy statement which encourages a "life-course" approach to vaccination by pharmacists. In the statement, published on September 27, FIP backed expansion of vaccine schedules and strategies so that patients of all age groups could be vaccinated throughout their entire lifespan, from infancy to old age. A life-course approach in public health and healthcare focuses on an individual's health and well-being, including vaccination, administered throughout their entire lifespan, from infancy to old age. FIP urged governments and policymakers to eliminate regulatory barriers, enabling pharmacists to prescribe and administer all relevant vaccines throughout the life-course. Additionally, FIP recommended that policymakers develop remuneration models for pharmacies to deliver sustainable life-course vaccination services within the private and public sectors.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is encouraging people to come forward for their first and/ or second dose of the Covid vaccine before the free offer ends on Friday (30 June). The NHS's world-leading vaccination programme has so far delivered over 146 million Covid jabs. Building on the success of autumn and spring booster programmes, a seasonal, targeted vaccination offer will remain open for those most at risk, in line with advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). Health Minister Maria Caulfield said: "As we live with Covid without restrictions on our freedoms, it is right that we move towards a more targeted vaccination offer that prioritises those most at risk, so we can focus our efforts on cutting waiting lists for NHS treatment - one of the Prime Minister's top five priorities. As the offer for any adult to get a Covid vaccine comes to an end on 30 June, I would urge those who have not yet come forward to choose to have the first and second Covid vaccine. It takes minutes to get your jab and thousands of sites are open across England." This year's spring booster programme continues to gather pace, with over two million eligible people receiving their vital top-up dose.

The NHS on Sunday (January 30) expanded its Covid-19 vaccination programme to include vulnerable children aged five to 11 years. Eligible children include those with diabetes, immunosuppression, learning disabilities, and other conditions as outlined by the UK Health Security Agency in the Green Book. Besides, children living with someone immunosuppressed will be eligible to get the first dose of the Covid vaccine in line with advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). According to the NHS there are around 500,000 eligible children in the latest cohort. GP and deputy lead for NHS vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani, said: "We know vaccines give significant protection against severe illness from Covid - including the omicron variant, so it is important that our youngest and most at-risk get protected.

Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a new study has found. The "COV-Boost" study was cited by UK officials when they announced that Pfizer and Moderna were preferred for use in the country's booster campaign, but the data has only been made publicly available now. The study found that six out of the seven boosters examined enhanced immunity after initial vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine, while all seven increased immunity when given after two doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine. "A third dose will be effective for many of the vaccines we've tested and in many different combinations," Professor Saul Faust, an immunologist at the University of Southampton and the trial's lead, told the media.

Pharmacies have administered more than five million flu vaccinations under the national flu vaccination service in 2022/23, revealed the advanced service flu report published by the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA). According to the report, 5,007,578 million vaccinations has been administered by community pharmacies in 2022/23. Whilst in 2021/22 the total number of vaccines administered in community pharmacies was 4.85 million. The service has continued to achieve year-on-year growth in the number of vaccinations administered since it launched in 2015. Commenting on the end-of-season figures, Alastair Buxton, Director of NHS Services, Community Pharmacy England said: "This season's flu vaccination figures are yet another example of the incredible contribution that our members and their teams make to protect the public and the NHS as part of a key public health programme. "Given the significant financial and workforce pressures that our members continue to face, this year on year growth is a fantastic achievement and a testament to their hard work and dedication.

French drugmaker Sanofi said on Monday (June 13) an upgraded version of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate it is developing with GSK showed potential in two trials to protect against the virus's main variants of concern, including the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 strains, when used as a booster shot. While the two companies' first experimental Covid shot is undergoing review by the European Medicines Agency, Sanofi and GSK have continued work on a vaccine that is moulded on the now-supplanted Beta variant, hoping still that it will confer broad protection against future viral mutations. Sanofi said this new vaccine candidate was shown to significantly boost antibody levels against a number of variants of concern, when given to trial participants who had an initial course of mRNA vaccines, a type made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna. In a separate trial conducted by a French hospitals network, Sanofi's Beta-adapted booster shot triggered a higher immune response than Sanofi's first-generation shot or Pfizer-BioNTech's established vaccine in previously vaccinated volunteers.

Prime minister Borris Johnson visited a Boots vaccination site in his west London constituency of Uxbridge on Monday (January 10) - as the pharmacy chain celebrates its anniversary of supporting the NHS Covid-19 vaccination drive. During the visit, the prime minister met with some pharmacists who have been administering Covid-19 booster jabs to patients. Since opening the first vaccination site at its Halifax store in January 2021, Boots UK has administered over 1.4 million Covid-19 jabs, and continues to offer booster doses at over 80 pharmacies, the company said in a statement. Continuing its support for the Covid-19 booster programme, Boots has doubled appointment capacity and added a small number of new sites since December 2021. Boots vaccination programme director Nick Sunderland said: "We are so proud of our pharmacists who have worked incredibly hard to support the national effort to accelerate the Covid-19 booster vaccination programme.

The British scientist who led the research underpinning AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine said at the weekend that a new jab could be developed against the emerging Omicron variant "very rapidly" if needed. Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, also said existing vaccines should work against the new strain, but that would only become apparent after more research in the coming weeks. "It's extremely unlikely that a reboot of a pandemic in a vaccinated population like we saw last year (with the Delta variant) is going to happen," he told BBC radio. But if required, "The processes of how one goes about developing a new vaccine are increasingly well-oiled, so if it's needed that is something that could be moved very rapidly." In a statement, AstraZeneca said it had "developed, in close collaboration with Oxford University, a vaccine platform that enables us to respond quickly to new variants that may emerge".

Kate Bingham, the former head of the UK's Covid-19 Vaccine Taskforce who secured millions of doses for the country, said scientists should know within a week whether existing shots are effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Bingham, a venture capitalist who backed multiple vaccines at the start of the pandemic to secure early access for Britain, said she currently expected that the leading shots would still show efficacy. "The question is do they have the same level of efficacy?" she said on Wednesday. Bingham, who has returned to her role as managing partner at SV Health Investors, said Britain had built up the capability to quickly test existing vaccines against new variants. "It's not something you can do overnight, but we will get data, I would have thought within a week as to whether or not the vaccines work or don't," she said.

The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has offered a new resource to help countries self-assess readiness of their regulations to enable pharmacist-delivered vaccination services and, where needed, to implement such regulations. Developed by FIP's Regulators Advisory Group, it covers broad pharmacist-led roles related to vaccination from supply chain management to administration and prescribing. "This new resource from FIP is based on the experiences of professional regulators in countries where pharmacy-led vaccination has been successfully introduced and regulated. With it, we aim to support regulators, policymakers and national organisations in developing strategies or enabling regulatory frameworks in countries where the pharmacy workforce has a limited role in vaccination strategies so that it can contribute further to the global imperative of improving immunisation coverage," said Brett Simmonds, group chair. The "Pharmacy-led vaccination services: Regulatory self-assessment and implementation tool" aims to help identify strengths and areas for improvement in order to inform vaccination policy and planning efforts.

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised booster vaccination to be offered this autumn (2023) for those at higher risk of severe Covid-19 in its interim advice to government on the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination programme for 2023. The JCVI also advised that for a smaller group of people, such as those who are older and those who are immunosuppressed, an extra booster vaccine dose in the spring should also be planned for. Professor Wei Shen Lim, Chair of Covid-19 vaccination on the JCVI, said: "The Covid-19 vaccination programme continues to reduce severe disease across the population, while helping to protect the NHS. That is why we have advised planning for further booster vaccines for persons at higher risk of serious illness through an autumn booster programme later this year. We will very shortly also provide final advice on a spring booster programme for those at greatest risk."

Britain has become the first country to approve a Codiv-19 vaccine that targets both the original and Omicron variant of the virus. Medicines regulator MHRA approved the so-called bivalent vaccine made by US drug company Moderna as a booster for adults. The agency's decision was based on clinical trial data that showed the booster triggered "a strong immune response" against both Omicron (BA.1) and the original 2020 virus, it said. The MHRA also cited an exploratory analysis in which the shot was also found to generate a good immune response against the currently dominant Omicron offshoots BA.4 and BA.5. "The first generation of Covid-19 vaccines being used in the UK continue to provide important protection against the disease and save lives," MHRA chief executive June Raine said in a statement. "What this bivalent vaccine gives us is a sharpened tool in our armoury to help protect us against this disease as the virus continues to evolve."

The NHS on Sunday (January 30) expanded its Covid-19 vaccination programme to include vulnerable children aged five to 11 years. Eligible children include those with diabetes, immunosuppression, learning disabilities, and other conditions as outlined by the UK Health Security Agency in the Green Book. Additionally, children living with someone immunosuppressed will be eligible to get the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in line with advice issued by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). According to the NHS, there are around 500,000 eligible children in the latest cohort. GP and deputy lead for NHS vaccination programme Dr Nikki Kanani, said: "We know vaccines give significant protection against severe illness from Covid - including the omicron variant, so it is important that our youngest and most at-risk get protected.

The UK government has awarded a £1.7 million contract to Ensilicated Technologies Ltd (EnsiliTech), a University of Bath spinout company dedicated to making vaccines safer, to develop the world's first thermally stable mRNA vaccine. mRNA vaccines have a huge potential to prevent infectious diseases and a range of previously unpreventable conditions, but currently, these vaccines require ultracold storage, needing to be kept at -70 or even -80 °C. The company's ensilication technology allows vaccines and other biological materials to be transported and stored without the use of refrigeration. Dr Asel Sartbaeva, co-founder and CEO at EnsiliTech, believes that the technology could save tens of thousands of lives every year. She commented: "We're so proud to have won this important government grant."

The NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard saluted the effort of over 100,000 Coid volunteers who alongside the NHS staff helped to deliver record-breaking numbers of jabs in December. The "selfless volunteers" devoted around two million hours to help ramp up the vaccination programme in 2021- with over nine million doses delivered since December 12, when the prime minister announced the turbo-charged vaccination drive. Pritchard said: "Alongside NHS staff, our selfless volunteers have worked tirelessly to protect the nation - in football stadiums, shopping centres, Christmas markets and countless other vaccination sites up and down the country. "I want to give my personal thanks to everyone who has given up their time to help us beat record after record - continuing to make the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme the biggest and most successful in health service history.

Britain has approved a new coronavirus vaccine by the Austrian-French drugmaker Valneva. "An approval has been granted after the Valneva Covid-19 vaccine was found to meet the required safety, quality and effectiveness standards," the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said in a statement on Thursday (April 14), adding: "It is also the first, whole-virus inactivated Covid-19 vaccine to gain regulatory approval in the UK." In vaccines such as Valneva's VLA2001, the virus is grown in a lab and then made completely inactive so that it cannot infect cells or replicate in the body but can still trigger an immune response. It is seen by some as having the potential to win over people wary of some which use new mRNA technology. Valneva CEO Thomas Lingelbach said that "this authorisation could pave the way for the availability of an alternative vaccine solution for the UK population."

Britain's Covid booster campaign is set to kick off this September, after the country became the first in the world to approve an Omicron-adapted shot. Around 26 million people in Britain are estimated to be eligible for an autumn Covid-19 booster, having had at least two Covid vaccine doses already, a UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) spokesperson said. The preference is to deploy what is known as a "bivalent vaccine" that targets both the original virus and the Omicron variant through the autumn campaign, but that will depend on the health regulator (MHRA) approving such shots and the state of vaccine supplies. The UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has advised boosters should be given to over-50s, individuals in clinical risk groups, frontline workers and care-home staff ahead of the winter, when respiratory viruses are typically at their peak. On Monday (August 15), the MHRA gave Moderna's bivalent shot conditional approval. The endorsement of the vaccine is based on data that showed it produced a marginally better immune response against some Omicron variants, versus the original novel coronavirus - although whether that translates into stronger protection against serious disease is unclear.

In its response to NHS England's consultation on 'the future of vaccination services', the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) has suggested that a wider range of NHS vaccinations being available from community pharmacies could support the achievement of increased vaccination levels. PSNC said: "Any additional services that contractors could provide can only be considered with additional remuneration above the current global sum in the community pharmacy contractual framework to ensure that the services are adequately resourced." Alastair Buxton, director of NHS Services at PSNC, said: "We've always known, and the evidence supports this, that community pharmacies are one of the most popular and accessible places for people to receive a range of vaccinations. "The NHS was slow to take advantage of this at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, so we welcome this consultation from them to bring together a wide range of views on the topic. "In the longer-term, if the right funding and support is in place, many pharmacies could help deliver a much wider range of NHS vaccination programmes - giving the public the convenience and service that they want, and taking pressure off our general practice colleagues. It makes perfect sense, and we look forward to the NHS response to this consultation."

The General Pharmaceutical Council reiterated its stand on Covid-19 vaccination, saying, "Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in all settings across Great Britain should be vaccinated against Covid -19, unless they are medically exempt." In a statement issued today (February 11), it strongly urged all pharmacyprofessionals, students and trainees to get fully vaccinated at the earliest. This reiteration follows the government's announcement on January 31, 2022 that it would not proceed with Covid vaccination as a mandatory condition of deployment for health and care staff providing CQC-regulated services in England. The Council stated that clinical trials have proven the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has authorised their use in the UK.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has suggested that the Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine (LAIV) vaccine that offers protection to children against flu may also help reduce the rate of group A strep infections. LAIV is a nasal spray offered each season to most children aged 2 and 3 years old, and to school-aged children, to help protect against flu. The new study looked back at data from 2013 to 2017, comparing rates of group A strep (GAS) infections in pilot areas and comparing them to other areas where the vaccine was not being offered as widely. It was found that incidence of GAS was lower in pilot areas where the LAIV vaccine was being offered to all primary school children, compared to areas where it was being incrementally rolled out. The study revealed, in 2 to 4 year olds, rates of GAS were 73.5 per 100,000 children in pilot areas, compared to 93 per 100,000 children in non-pilot areas. In 5 to 10 year olds, rates of GAS were 50.3 per 100,000 children in pilot areas, compared to 57.8 per 100,000 in non-pilot areas.