Covid-19: the government is about to sign a contract to purchase CanSino vaccines

On the desk of the Minister of Health signs the contract with Canadian Chinese Pharmaceutical CanSino to purchase doses of your Covid-19 vaccine. Anmat awaits the order from the health portfolio to approve the product, which would begin arrive in the country in July.

The deal was finalized last week between the ministry’s undersecretary for administration, Mauricio Monsalvo, and Cassará laboratory CEO Jorge Cassará, on behalf of the foreign pharmaceutical company. Minister Carla Vizzotti’s signature is missing.

The acquisition, of which too many details have not yet been revealed, would envisage five million doses for the Nation and, according to what was known, there would be another five million for the Province of Buenos Aires.

The state would pay $ 17 for each vaccine, including taxes and delivery to Ezeiza. Would be the first Single dose Covid-19 vaccine approved in the country for use outside of a clinical trial. Storage is in the cold of a common refrigerator, between 2 and 8 degrees, like the rest of the vaccines on the schedule.

The company’s contact with the national government began in the last few months of last year, with a formal proposal from CanSino that they were offering five million doses at that time and expired on February 12. “CanSino has doses reserved for Argentina to be part of the Phase III study, but as the ministry [de Salud] does not show interest, they will be lost, ”he lamented at that time before THE NATION an official source familiar with the unanswered proposal.

On the very day that the offer expired and given the notice that other countries in the region were on the waiting list for these doses if the quota reserved for Argentina decreased, the ministry expressed interest . This Friday afternoon, the pharmaceutical company agreed to continue negotiations via Cassará, which is behind the development of the Neokit test for Covid-19 via the César Milstein-Conicet Institute.

The dose reservation was also linked to the fact that the country finally participated through the Host Foundation in the phase III clinical trial of the CanSino Biologics Convidecia vaccine and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology. The product is similar to the second component of Sputnik V in that it uses an adenovirus (Ad5) as a vector to induce the immune response in the body against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus which causes Covid-19.

As this media may have known, if the contract is finalized, thethe first delivery would take place in July with a set of two million doses and it would continue in a staggered fashion until September or October. The acquisition of doses is also attracting interest from several provinces.

The province of Buenos Aires is participating in the study carried out by the Fundación Hupedes through several of its hospitals. Before consulting THE NATION Regarding the purchase of the doses, they did not specify the amount, but indicated that CanSino is one of the companies with which they are advancing. “We have open dialogues with 10 laboratories and we want to negotiate all available vaccines as soon as possible, mainly for the end of the year and next year. The contracts for the moment are already underway, ”said sources from the province’s health ministry.