BPB Reports

Paper Details

BPB Reports
Vol. 5 No. 4 p.80-83 2022
Report
Establishment of an Easy and Convenient Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies Test Flow Starting from Community Pharmacies: Expansion of Pharmacy Functions Suitable During the Novel Coronavirus Era
  • Kazuyuki Niki (Department of Clinical Pharmacy Research and Education, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University / k-niki@phs.osaka-u.ac.jp)
Kazuyuki Niki 1) , Kozo Tada 2) , Katsumi Suezawa 3) 4) , Tomoko Kasashima 2) , Shin Fujisue 2) , Eri Seichi 2) , Miki Nakahara 2) , Yoshiko Ohara 3) , Akiko Yoshida 3) , Mikiko Ueda 1)
1) Department of Clinical Pharmacy Research and Education, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University , 2) Greenmedic Pharmacy , 3) Medical Corporation HITSUJI Society AC Clinic , 4) Japanese Association for Community Pharmacy
Received: June 14, 2022;   Accepted: June 23, 2022;   Released: July 12, 2022
Keywords: coronavirus disease 2019, community pharmacy, anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody
Abstracts

The third vaccination for coronavirus disease 2019 is recommended; however, the vaccination rate is not increasing. This is due to a lack of information on the effectiveness of the booster vaccination and the fact that some people assume that they have acquired sufficient immunity after the second vaccination. Therefore, this study examined whether a system could be established in which a community pharmacy could act as a starting point to conduct antibody tests. The study was conducted between November 18, 2021 and February 28, 2022. Thirty-eight subjects collected their own samples in the Greenmedic pharmacy or at home using a self-blood collection kit and submitted them to the pharmacy. Samples were transported from the pharmacy to the AC clinic within 2 days for measuring anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies (NAbs). There were eight men and 30 women with a mean age (mean ± standard deviation) of 33.6 ± 15.3 years. Of the subjects, 12 had completed the third vaccination; the median (interquartile range) blood NAbs after the second vaccination was 34.9 (23.3–59.4) AU/mL, which increased to 994.1 (974.7–1042.1) AU/mL after the third vaccination (p = 0.0022). Significant negative correlations were also observed for both blood NAbs and age after the second vaccination (rs = −0.579, p = 0.00014). Since these results were similar to those of previous studies conducted at hospitals, this study seems to be the first to demonstrate that anti-SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody test flow can be established at a community pharmacy.