As major pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens roll out the new Covid vaccine, independent pharmacies say they’re facing delays in getting their shipments, leading to longer wait times for their patients to get vaccinated.
Neal Smoller, the owner of Village Apothecary, an independent pharmacy in Woodstock, New York, said he received doses of Moderna’s vaccine over the weekend, but Pfizer’s didn’t arrive until Wednesday. There’s no clear timeline yet for shipments of the Novavax vaccine, he said, which was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration last Friday.
Labor Day is a big time of the year for vaccinations, Smoller said. So far, he’s given the Moderna vaccine to about 400 people over the holiday weekend, primarily older adults concerned about the summer surge in Covid cases and teachers preparing for the start of the school year.
Others, he said, are waiting for either the Pfizer or Novavax vaccines to arrive at the pharmacy.
“We’re big vaccinators, and it’s still a chaotic mess for even us and trying to assuage everybody’s fears” that it’ll be available, Smoller said. “On the patient side, there’s a lot of anxiety and apprehension. Lots of phone calls trying to determine, ‘Can I get my vaccine? I heard it was approved.’”
Independent pharmacists who spoke to NBC News claimed that the delays are due to drug manufacturers and wholesalers prioritizing larger retail chains, including CVS and Walgreens, for their early shipments, an assertion both Pfizer and Moderna pushed back on.
A spokesperson for Moderna said it’s “on track with all of our commitments across channels, including non-retail,” referring to doctor’s offices and community health centers.
A spokesperson for Pfizer said in a statement that the drugmaker has a “substantial supply” of the new Covid vaccine and has shipped and delivered “millions of doses,” adding that “all orders are being fulfilled as received, and are being shipped within days of an order being placed.”
Both drugmakers acknowledged that buying the vaccines through wholesalers could slow down the process slightly.
Spokespeople for CVS and Walgreens said they have ample supply of the vaccines.
Patients holding out
Emlah Tubuo, the owner of Powell Pharmacy in Ohio, runs the only independent pharmacy in Powell, a small city north of Columbus. Most retail chains require appointments to get a vaccination, she said, but her pharmacy offers walk-ins.
Tubuo has ordered doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines but has yet to receive any. She hopes to get the shipments sometime this week.
“What happens is that the chain pharmacies typically get them first, then the independent pharmacies are usually like last in the rollout,” Tubuo said. “We really dislike it.”
Some patients who would’ve normally already gotten their flu shot are holding out because they want to get it alongside the Covid shot.
“We’ve got lots of calls, and I had to just tell them to just check back with us,” she said. “Our goal was to coadminister because we’ve been educating people that it’s OK to get both vaccines at the same time.”
Jonathan Marquess, vice president of the Academy of Independent Pharmacy in Georgia, said the vaccine rollout in his state is going well overall, although a few independent pharmacies may still be waiting on doses.
“I think most independents are getting them earlier this year,” he said, adding that the delay seems to be more of an issue for the Pfizer doses.
Mayank Amin, the owner of Skippack Pharmacy in Pennsylvania, said he’s received thousands of doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Amin said he’s a rare example — his pharmacy primarily focuses on vaccines, and he attributes his success in getting doses to persistently maintaining contact with manufacturers and following up with them to ensure the vaccine doses are prepared and delivered.
“It’s crazy that you have to do that,” he said. “The chain pharmacies, they obviously have someone that’s their direct connection to Moderna, direct connection to Pfizer, saying, ‘Make sure we get these vaccines.’ For us, it’s every man on their own.”
Other small pharmacies are still waiting.
Emmanuel Ayanjoke, the owner of Altev Community Pharmacy in Cincinnati, said he hasn’t received any doses of the Moderna vaccine yet. (He didn’t order the Pfizer vaccine.)
Doctor’s offices started referring patients to the pharmacy as early as August, he said, and so he has begun collecting names and will reach out once the vaccine has arrived.
“We’re hoping that by this week we get the vaccine,” he said.
