Vaccines: They don’t just come from Russia but now too …

The national government continues to run all possible routes for vaccine supply in an international situation that has become more, not less complicated. In Moscow, another shipment is being prepared for an Aerolineas Argentinas plane that will pick it up this week. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has promised to send at least one plane every ten days. This is in addition to the two million doses arriving from China (see separately), with the second million arriving faster than expected. In parallel, two games are underway in the United States, both related to the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccines. On the one hand, the 900,000 doses of which the active element was produced in Argentina. These vaccines would be at the end of quality control. But what is more important is that the United States would release millions of doses, planned by AstraZeneca for the North American market, and that the laboratory would be able to distribute them in Latin America. Argentina would receive 20 percent of those doses. A videoconference is scheduled this week between Alberto Fernández and AstraZeneca’s global CEO Pascal, in which the president will reiterate Argentina’s malaise because he has manufactured vaccines and the laboratory does not respect the agreement. Over the weekend, Minister Carla Vizzotti announced that there were negotiations with other companies, but without results for the moment.

Moscow

Over the past week, Presidential Advisor Cecilia Nicolini and businessman Marcelo Figueiras were in Moscow, both meeting with authorities at the Gamaleya Institute and RDIF. From there came the deal to start packing Sputnik V in the Richmond lab.

During these talks, the Russian side again promised to regularize the shipments, at least once every ten days. It is in this context that Russian sources have confirmed Page 12 that a new Aerolineas Argentinas flight is in preparation.

It will be necessary to see the doses that arrive and the proportion between dose 1 and dose 2. At this stage, both are necessary because despite the fact that the Gamaleya Institute insisted that the time between the two doses can be perfectly spaced , other shipments came to Argentina or less compensated until March 1. From this date almost all 1 doses have arrived, that is, in a few days eight of the 12 weeks considered a limit will be met.

In Russia, there is not much pressure from the population for vaccines. A band of 30 percent, unlike Putin, says directly that she is not going to be vaccinated. There is also a young sector which is unaware of the disease and the number of deaths and hospitalizations remains stable. This explains why, in proportion, vaccination in Russia is lower than in Argentina.

However, at the same time, there is strong international pressure for Sputnik V, since now all countries want it, even Europeans and there is a claim from much of Latin America. This makes demand very high and limits shipments to Argentina.

In these weeks, what has most stressed the world market is the disaster in India and the Chinese decision to prioritize its citizens in vaccination. This considerably reduces the international supply of doses.

United States I

In the United States, there is the shipment of 900,000 doses of Oxford / AstraZeneca which, according to the laboratory, are in quality control. This situation was confirmed by Nicolini in C5N and also by Minister Vizzotti in an interview Profile. The British pharmaceutical giant’s quality checks consist of cultures that take time, but the time that has passed seems too long.

President Fernández said over the weekend “that AstraZeneca is not respecting what has been agreed. The active element has been sent and what they promised has not happened, ”said the president.

Apparently, this sentence from Fernández prompted AstraZeneca to request a video conference with the CEO of the Cambridge-based company. The virtual meeting would take place this week. It is possible that this dialogue will clarify, once and for all, the delay in vaccines.

United States II

At the same time, the news that could have the biggest impact is that the Joe Biden administration would release AstraZeneca from an export ban on vaccines originally intended for the North American market. No one knows exactly how much, but there are tens of millions of doses.

At the Casa Rosada, they claim that this release, requested last week by Alberto Fernández from Biden’s envoy, Juan González, would take place in the coming days and this opens the possibility that other vaccines will arrive in May.

From AstraZeneca, they claim that the amounts released would be used to fulfill outstanding contracts. In this case, Argentina would get 20% of the AstraZeneca vaccines that are in the United States, or several million doses.

As molecular biologist Ernesto Resnik pointed out in the Sunday edition of Page 12, In the United States, there can be a huge short-term vaccine surplus. They have banned exports, bought hundreds of millions of vaccines and meanwhile 30% of the population say they are unvaccinated, which includes some of the Republican voters, the pro-Trump, added to the anti-vaccine gang. historical. and part of the youth. This takes the pressure off the North American vaccine market and, according to Resnik, could allow an overflow into other countries.

For now, this is not the case for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the export of which remains banned. Vizzotti said they are speaking with the two labs, but it seems difficult for them to have any production to release outside of the United States. Negotiations are also continuing with Pfizer and dialogues with other producers.

Nothing seems simple in the barren panorama of the global vaccine market, but Argentina, despite everything, continues to receive doses and bring in planes.