COVID-19 vaccines and medicines: updates for October 2022
Recent information relating to COVID-19 vaccines and medicines that has been published since the September 2022 issue of Drug Safety Update, up to 21 October 2022.
Summaries of Yellow Card reporting
We continue to publish the summaries of the Yellow Card reporting for the COVID-19 vaccines being used in the UK. The report summarises information received via the Yellow Card scheme and includes other data such as usage of COVID-19 vaccines and relevant epidemiological data. The report is updated regularly to include other safety investigations carried out by the MHRA under the COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance Strategy.
Other recent MHRA updates on Coronavirus vaccines and medicines:
We have also recently:
- updated the shelf life and storage instructions for Spikevax (COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna) in the Summary of Product Characteristics (sections 6.3 and 6.4) and the Patient Information Leaflet to allow the vaccine to be stored to the range of -50ºC to -15ºC
See guidance on COVID-19 for all our latest information, including after publication of this article.
We previously included summaries of latest COVID-19 information, including in the July 2022, August 2022, and September 2022 issues of Drug Safety Update.
Reporting Yellow Cards
Report suspected side effects to medicines, vaccines and medical device and test kit incidents used in coronavirus (COVID-19) testing and treatment using:
- the dedicated Coronavirus Yellow Card reporting site
- the Yellow Card app (download from the Apple App store or Google Play store)
For products under additional monitoring (▼) such as the COVID-19 vaccines, you should report all suspected adverse side effects. This will allow the MHRA to identify new safety information for these products.
When reporting please provide as much information as possible, including information about medical history, any concomitant medications, onset timing, and treatment dates, and for vaccines, the product brand name and batch number.
You may be contacted following submission of a Yellow Card report so that we can gather additional relevant information for the assessment of the report. These contributions form an important part of our understanding of suspected side effects.
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Article citation: Drug Safety Update volume 16, issue 3: October 2022: 2.