20 September 2024
Catherine Jamieson
[FYI request #27878 email]
Tēnā koe Catherine
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00063361
Thank you for your email on 9 September 2024, asking Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora for
the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
“It states that stock of batch FR4268 were depleted in New Zealand in October 2022. Of the
4800 sent out to provider sites, 280 were administered according to OIA response
H00041853. If the remainder of the batch were 'depleted in New Zealand' by October, they
did not expire at provider sites as the expiry date for this batch was 30/11/22”
Response
Health NZ can confirm batch FR4268
had a shelf-life extension applied for frozen storage. It was
manufactured with 9 months shelf life and had an expiry date of 31 August 2022.
Medsafe approved the amendment of shelf life from 9 months to 12 months on 27 April 2022.
Accordingly, on 29 April 2022, batch FR4268 shelf life was extended to 30 November 2022.
However, all the vaccine doses from this batch were distributed and the 2-8 degree expiry date
was 31 October 2022, as this was 10 weeks from removal from freezer and this overrides the
frozen expiry of 30 November 2022. All unused vaccine doses expired on 31 October 2022 at
provider sites.
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Manager, Machinery of Government Support
National Public Health Services
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
