For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Robert Hodges, Senior Director, Marketing & Communications, APhA, 202-429-7560
Washington, D.C (October 16, 2025) — Today, the Pharmacy-based Vaccine Access Work Group, consisting of representatives from a diverse group of 12 organizations across pharmacy practice settings, jointly published guiding principles for state policy on pharmacy personnel–administered vaccines. This marks an unprecedented level of collaboration between pharmacy professionals, symbolizing a strong commitment from the field of pharmacy to national public health interests.
Pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy interns play a critical role in delivering timely, accessible, and reliable vaccination services to the public. However, in many states, the authority for pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and pharmacy interns to administer vaccines is tied directly to recommendations from federal bodies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and/or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
As federal processes evolve, recommendations change, and advisory structures shift. Such references can create unintended legal and regulatory ambiguity, reduce flexibility, and delay access to newly authorized and existing vaccines. This can present significant challenges to pharmacy personnel administering vaccines as part of current standards of care through evidence-based decision making, greatly decreasing access to essential vaccinations and thus limiting patient autonomy in the decision to receive vaccines in line with practice standards.