Mexico looks to begin producing and bottling its own vaccines
Mexico’s secretary of foreign affairs, Marcelo Ebrad, has traveled to Russia to conduct negotiations to bottle the Sputnik V vaccine in Mexico.
According to the secretary, this would simplify and speed up the process of sending the vaccine to Mexico.
While in Russia, Secretary Ebrad took the opportunity to invite the Russian scientific community to take part in research surrounding Mexico’s Patria COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
“We would be very pleased to collaborate with Russian epidemiologists on the testing of our Patria vaccine. We would of course do everything we could to facilitate such a collaboration.”
Earlier this month, federal health authorities announced that phase-three human trials of the Patria COVID-19 vaccine candidate would begin shortly.
Preliminary results of human trials are expected as early as the end of May. If all goes well, the Patria vaccine could be administered by the end of the year, state health officials said.
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In conjunction with Argentina, Mexico has also secured the rights to begin producing the British AstraZeneca vaccines.
“Despite significant setbacks, we are expecting to deliver our first shipment of vaccines for distribution in Latin America during the month of May,” said a press statement from Laboratorios Liomont in Mexico City.
Given the uncertainty surrounding the long-term efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, a growing chorus of health officials have begun to say that it is crucial that Mexico continue to develop its pharmaceutical production capabilities.
“If this crisis has shown us anything it is that we can not rely on pharmaceutical imports to address the needs of the Mexican people. The federal government must invest more to grow our own pharma industry and achieve vaccine sovereignty,” said a press statement from Mexico’s national pharmaceutical association.
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer, adventure leader, and PhD candidate. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds multimedia, philosophy, and translation degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
