Mexico has confirmed when it will start distributing the …

The vaccine AstraZeneca, produced between Argentina and Mexico, will begin to be distributed throughout Latin America from the third week of April, as confirmed by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard. The binational production of the vaccine, whose active ingredient is produced in the Mabxience laboratory in the city of Buenos Aires de Garín, represents the largest supply contract signed by Argentina for a total of 22 million doses.

The Mexican Foreign Minister said that tomorrow a new shipment of the active substance will arrive from Argentina to be packaged at the Liomont plant in the municipality of Ocoyoacac, in the state of Mexico, about 70 kilometers from the capital city. The first batch of the formula from the Anglo-Swedish laboratory arrived on January 18, so it was expected to meet the initial conditions of the contract, agreed by the end of February.

However, the batch that allowed to package more than a million doses was not available until last week due to the lack of some supplies in Mexico, such as vials and syringes. The agreement for the delivery of vaccines in Latin America with AstraZeneca, produced in Argentina and packaged in Mexico, is supported by telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim, whose empire spans several countries in the region.

The pharmaceutical company has agreed to produce a total of 77.4 million doses that will be distributed in Mexico and an additional 200 million requested by various Latin American countries. To produce the millions of doses needed, AstraZeneca built regional supply chains, and in 2020, through the Slim Foundation, negotiations began with the team developing this vaccine, seeking to join the effort and bring its production to Latin America.

President Alberto Fernández, during his recent official stay in Mexico, visited the Covid-19 vaccine packaging plant on February 22, accompanied by Slim and Ebrard, and checked the progress of immunizing substances.

Self-sufficiency and equity in global distribution

Announcing the date on which vaccines will begin to be distributed throughout Latin America, the Mexican Foreign Minister highlighted the possibility of< renforcer les capacités garantissant l'autosuffisance >> in vaccines against Covid-19 in the region of the Community of Latin American States. and the Caribbean.

In parallel, the president Andrés López Obrador urged the United Nations (UN) to redouble efforts to deliver antigens through the Covax mechanism, intended for poor countries. “So far, a large number of countries continue without a single dose against Covid-19,” the president said, ANSA news agency reported.

“The UN has already started delivering packages through this mechanism to countries with marginalized populations, but it is not enough, it must make a greater effort; we call it that because a greater percentage is marketed directly between labs, ”he said. .