Argentina is negotiating to buy two new vaccines …

Argentina has officially started negotiations for two new vaccines. On the one hand, the Sovereign, which Cuba would have available in May, which is an astonishing scientific feat. AND other, in India, with a laboratory called Barath, for a vaccine called Covaxin, that the Argentinian scientists, in charge of analyzing it, judged it magnificent. Finally, there is a third negotiation, even more astonishing, with a prince of the United Arab Emirates, Country which bought millions of doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine through an investment fund.

There is the possibility of buying them more vaccines and, in addition, they would help speed up the arrival of the two million doses already committed by China and whose shipment was complicated. If to this is added the prospect of shipping those from Oxford / AstraZeneca, whose active ingredient was produced in Argentina – they claim that 900,000 doses arrive in April – the country has good possibilities of a very intense flow to respond to the second wave of the virus.

None of the negotiations are closed, but all have a good chance of being finalized. In some of the dialogues, President Alberto Fernández intervenes directly. This Tuesday, Cuba officially delivered all the documentation on Sovereign, the vaccine produced by the island and which could be received in May. Phase 3 studies are in full swing and 90,000 volunteers are participating, so Argentinian health authorities will have immediate access to the results. It is quite possible that this negotiation will be advanced and the doses will be available in about six to seven weeks.

In the short term, a dialogue has been initiated with the Indian authorities on Covaxin. The vaccine was not cleared by Brazil after a collision during the inspection of the Barath plant, but the first analyzes carried out in Argentina gave satisfactory results. Talks are ongoing. Covaxin is applied in Iran, Myanmar and Mozambique, also with good impact.

The other ongoing negotiation is with a United Arab Emirates (UAE) investment fund, although the dialogue is country-to-country i.e. with UAE authorities. Emirates has purchased millions of Sinopharm vaccines and is said to have an additional batch. In fact, China is waiting for the dispatch of two million more doses – in addition to the one received tomorrow – but everything was complicated because there are starting to be restrictions at the Asian giant. As is the case around the world, countries are banning the sale of vaccines on the grounds that they must apply them to their populations. The UAE would not only provide vaccines – if the negotiations were successful – but it would help reach the two million doses already signed.

Finally, the AstraZeneca laboratory has submitted a report to the Ministry of Health on how it will deliver the 22,400,000 doses between April and October.

They have ratified that in the coming month, the first 900,000 come from the United States, then 3,500,000 in May from Mexico and the same in June. The vaccine is the cheapest on the market because who developed it, the University of Oxford, forced the lab to sell it at cost – three dollars – for the duration of the pandemic. Later, if it has to be reapplied a year later (which is not yet known), the laboratory may set another price.