Sinopharm in Argentina: how many vaccines have already been applied and who are the beneficiaries

The World Health Organization (WHO) today approved the emergency use of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine. In Argentina, this vaccine was already in use and was even approved by the National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology (Anmat) on March 25 for application in people over 60 years old. So far, according to the portfolio led by Carla Vizzotti, 4,000,000 doses of Sinopharm have arrived in the country and 2,206,268 have already been applied.

In the city of Buenos Aires, out of a total of 907,900 vaccines received, 191,901 came from Sinopharm. As explained at THE NATION From the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health, they were first applied to strategic personnel, such as teachers or health workers, and when the Anmat finally approved their use for people over 60, they were adopted. started to apply it to the rest of the population, as established. in the city’s vaccination plan.

Sinopharm is a Chinese state-owned company whose preliminary data announced by the company itself shows 79% effectiveness in preventing symptomatic infection. While another study on the same vaccine carried out in the United Arab Emirates had indicated that the vaccine reached 86%. Finally, concerning the variants and according to a work published in the specialized journal New England Journal of MedicineThey could even be effective against the UK.

This vaccine, which is one of the two main Chinese injections (along with Sinovac), which has already been administered to hundreds of millions of people in China and abroad, becomes the first against Covid-19 developed by a country not West for WHO approval. It is also the first time that the WHO has approved the emergency use of a Chinese vaccine against an infectious disease.

This approval will allow the Covax platform for equitable access to vaccines, start negotiations with the company Sinopharm to buy its vaccines and distribute them in countries that do not have access to them.

The day before yesterday, the governments of Argentina and China reached an agreement for the local production of the Sinopharm vaccine. This was confirmed by the ambassador of this country after a meeting with the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti.

The Chinese Embassy in Argentina, as always, will support the joint effort of the two countries to deal with the pandemic and assist Sinopharm in its close collaboration with the country, to increase the Sino-Argentinian response to the emergency. sanitary “, Ambassador Said Xiaoli.

The agreement envisages “the possibility of collaborating and being part of the research and production chain of vaccines used in Argentina and even in Latin America in the medium and long term”, they expressed of the Ministry of Health.

In addition to the Chinese Ambassador, there was his Argentine counterpart in Beijing, Sabino Vaca Narvaja; Leaders of Sinopharm from China and Argentina, and representatives of Sinergium Biotech, businessman Hugo Sigman.

Sigman is part of another initiative to manufacture the active ingredient in the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. But these doses, which were initially to be packaged in Mexico, have not yet reached the country due to various production issues.

There aren’t many details on how the Chinese vaccine is locally manufactured. The only official confirmation from the two governments.

THE NATION