Argentina bought 22 million doses from AstraZeneca – News

“AstraZeneca has signed an agreement with the Argentine government to provide more than 22 million doses of its COVID-19 AZD1222 vaccine developed in partnership with the University of Oxford“said the statement.

This vaccine has already successfully passed phases I and II. It is currently in phase III and at the end of November, we will know if it meets the levels of effectiveness and safety..

Yesterday the government promulgated the Vaccines Act Intended to generate immunity against Covid-19 (27,573) which, as explained by the Minister of Health, Ginés González García, it was a “necessary tool” to advance contracts with different companies and a requirement of Covax.

Precisely, these doses would be in addition to the more than 9 million that will be obtained through Covax (a collective purchasing mechanism promoted by the WHO) which would arrive at the end of February.

“AstraZeneca Argentina has already started working with the Argentine Regulatory Agency (Anmat) to advance this process since October 5,” the statement added.

In addition, he explained that regulatory authorities, including Canada, Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, Australia and South Korea, “they also initiated review protocols for the candidate vaccine“.

These trials, he explained, will determine whether the vaccine generate protection against Covid-19 and measure safety and immune responses in up to 50,000 participants worldwide across a broad age range and diverse racial, ethnic and geographic groups.

The vaccine uses a weakened version of a cold virus (adenovirus) which causes infections in chimpanzees and contains the genetic material for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

Report by Jorge Mercado