Monovalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccines Removed From Formulary on April 21, 2023

Date: May 8, 2023
 
Attention: All Providers

Effective Date: April 21, 2023

Call to action: Texas Children Health Plan (TCHP) would like to inform providers that effective April 21, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended the emergency use authorizations of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 bivalent mRNA vaccines. This is to simplify the vaccination schedule for most individual vaccines, and monovalent are no longer authorized for use in the United States.

This announcement includes authorizing the current bivalent vaccines (original and omicron BA.4/BA.5 strains) to be used for all doses administered to individuals six months and older, including for an additional dose or doses for specific populations.

How this impacts providers: HHSC removed the following monovalent Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines on April 21, 2023, due to the recent FDA announcement.

Next steps for providers:

Providers should review the updated vaccination recommendations as it applies to members who:

• originally received either of the monovalent Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
• received any combination of monovalent and bivalent COVID-19 vaccines
• are unvaccinated against COVID-19

Providers are encouraged to share this communication with their staff and to educate patients, our members.

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-changes-simplify-use-bivalent-mrna-covid-19-vaccines

If you have any questions, please email Provider Network Management at: providerrelations@texaschildrens.org.

For access to all provider alerts,log into:
www.thecheckup.org or www.texaschildrenshealthplan.org/for-providers.