Could this affect the application in Argentina?

It is not only Spain, which has further lowered the age limit and will not give it to those who are older 55 years. It is also not a decision of Germany, which recommends it up to 64. Several countries of European Union will not apply the vaccine AstraZeneca those over 65.

The government has confirmed that Argentina will receive an “additional” item of 580,000 doses of these vaccines during the remainder of the month. Thus, this product, the next to arrive in the country, before those ordered by the global Covax fund, seemed to be a balm in the face of the shortage of vaccines in general and the presumably assured doses of Sputnik V, which are also delayed. .

But what effect do the world’s first objections to this vaccine have at the local level? Will it be the same for people over 65? What is administered here to everyone ensures that we have more doses than others don’t want? If the age is also limited in the country, this decision would condition the vaccination plans.

After delays in shipments from Moscow, which raised alarms in January, President Alberto Fernández is reportedly facing a new brake, although the doses are put on the planes.

The European discussion responds to the fact that Astrazeneca’s vaccine trials included little over 55. And these countries, which in less than a week were joined by Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Austria, Croatia and France, they wondered if it was effective with the elderly.

“There are no hard data to guarantee the efficacy and absence of side effects in this group,” they agreed. At the same time, a clarification was drawn: “If further investigations demonstrate effectiveness, the decision would be changed “.

AstraZeneca has proposed to the national government an early and “additional” departure of 1,160,000 doses -580,000 in February and 580,000 in March, with exclusivity because our country was one of the first to allow it after the British regulatory agency did so. It was confirmed by the Health Quality Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Arnaldo Medina.

It should be remembered that AstraZeneca are produced between Argentina and Mexico, due to the agreement between the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company and the private laboratories mAbxience and Liomont, which is sponsored by the two governments.

What is certain is that the ANMAT approved this vaccine on December 30 and, at the end of this note, the Ministry of Health of the Nation did not respond. Bugle during possible change in target / target group of inoculation.

“In Argentina, the AstraZeneca vaccine is approved for all ages but from 18 years old. European countries that have lowered the age limit for administering it have done so since data for people over 60 (strictly speaking 65, since Germany defined it for people between 18 and 64 years) they are not complete. This is so even if the laboratory has just sent a pre-printed publication containing data on studies in the over 60s. Based on these latest data, the vaccine would work quite well in this group. If I haven’t, would add a serious problem to Argentina, so as not to be able to vaccinate quickly those most in need of immunization “, he says Bugle renowned infectologist Eduardo López.

As this debate rages around the world, the creators of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine say it appears to be effective against the variant detected in Britain last year. The announcement is similar to results already reported by Pfizer, Moderna and other manufacturers for their respective vaccines. Andrew Pollard of the University of Oxford, who helped develop the AstraZeneca vaccine, says it appears to reduce the amount of the virus in people infected with COVID-19. At around the same time, it was learned that the effectiveness was “limited” against the South African strain.

The first doses of this vaccine, the third approved in the European Union, it is not known whether they will arrive in Argentina next week or the last day of the month. Neither when its distribution will begin, nor to which group. The recommended interval between the two doses is 10 to 12 weeks.

The recommendation of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which approved this vaccine for people over 18 without age limit, is aligned with the ANMAT decision.

Is there a possibility of change of opinion? For López, “anything is possible in Argentina”, but he doesn’t believe that will happen. “The AstraZeneca vaccine has a very similar combination to that of Sputnik V, both are vector vaccines, which use adenoviruses that do not reproduce. It seems to me that there will be no major problem. But it is true that the efficacy of AstraZeneca (65% from the 1st dose) is lower than that of Sputnik (91.2% at both doses) ”.

In case there is a shift in decision making and it is recommended only for under 65s, the elderly would be subject to the availability of Sputnik and ultimately to the 9 million doses that will arrive via the Covax agreement (initially 2.2 million will arrive), although it has not been identified from from which laboratories will supply these vaccines.

UK and Czech Republic administer these vaccines to people over 65, as the governments of both countries have confirmed in recent hours. British health officials have already vaccinated people over 70 with the Oxford doses. In addition, they defended its efficiency and safety. This corresponds to the information from the laboratories that developed it.

On the other hand, although the Czech Republic will use the vaccine developed by the British university, Czech Minister of Health Jan Blatný admitted that “ less effective for this segment of the population ”.

SC