Health care facilities or providers facing inadequate supplies of certain drugs needed to treat patients with COVID-19 should not use the products more than four hours beyond the labeled “in-use time” for refrigerated storage or two hours beyond the labeled “in-use time” for room temperature storage, the Food and Drug Administration announced yesterday. The guidance applies to 10 specific drug products.

“FDA is aware that some health care facilities and providers are facing challenges in maintaining adequate supplies of certain drugs needed to treat patients with COVID-19,” the agency said. “In particular, health care facilities and providers have reported that care of ventilated patients can be complicated by the need to discard containers of medications before they are fully administered because of the in-use time specified on the FDA-approved label.”

The “in-use time” is the maximum amount of time allowed before administering a sterile drug product after penetrating its container-closure system or a lyophilized drug product after it has been reconstituted.

 

Facilities or providers seeking information on the potential to use other specific FDA-approved drugs for injection beyond the labeled in-use time in COVID-19 patients due to supply issues may email requests for information to CDER-OPQ-Inquiries@fda.hhs.gov.

Related News Articles

Headline
The Food and Drug Administration yesterday announced that Olympus issued a global recall of its ViziShot 2 FLEX needles manufactured prior to May 12 following…
Headline
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices Sept. 19 recommended that patients should consult their health care provider if they want to receive a COVID-…
Headline
The Department of Health and Human Services Sept. 18 announced it will take new actions to help improve care for individuals with long COVID. They include a…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall for Mo-Vis BVBA R-net Joysticks due to a firmware error that causes the wheelchair to ignore…
Headline
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is predicting a similar combined number of peak hospitalizations from COVID-19, the flu and respiratory…
Headline
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration today announced a 60-day extension of the comment period on its proposed rule to remove the remaining…