One by one, the seven new vaccines against the coronavirus negotiated by Argentina

The government has opened negotiations with seven laboratories and some are on the verge of signing contracts for the supply of more vaccines against the coronavirus and the new variants which are appearing amid the second wave of the pandemic which is crossing the country.

This was revealed on Tuesday by the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, during the presentation and answers to questions to the Committee for Social Action and Public Health of the Chamber of Deputies.

At the moment, he is in discussions with the US emporium Johnson & Johnson about his Janssen vaccine, which consists of a single dose and is recommended – at least for now – for people 18 years of age or older.

Likewise, negotiations have been opened with Novavax, an American vaccine development company based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States, to access its drug technically called NVX-CoV2373, which is currently in phase 3 studies.

Negotiations are also underway with the Chinese / Canadian company CanSino Biologics to access its drug called Ad5-nCoV, or Convidicea according to its trade name, in the coming months.

The drug CanSino is in phase 3 of development (the last before marketing) and is being tested by Argentina (with 850 people), Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and also Chile, with more than 40,000 people in total.

This vaccine, developed by CanSino, the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, is a viral vector vaccine similar to that of AstraZeneca-Oxford and Gam-COVID-Vac from Gamaleya, the latter developed in Russia .

Third, the government is negotiating with an Indian laboratory called Bharat Biotech, which has a vaccine that has been shown to be effective in studies at 81% to prevent symptomatic Covid-19, according to an interim analysis of a stage test advanced.

The Ministry of Health has also established contacts with Sinovac Biotech Ltd, a Chinese biopharmaceutical company based in Beijing. This company began in 2020 to develop a vaccine against Covid-19 called CoronaVac.

Vizzotti also met with Cuban Ambassador to Argentina Pedro Pablo Prada Quintero to advance negotiations on at least one of the four vaccines the island is developing, Sovereign II.

Also participating in the negotiations with Cuba were President Alberto Fernández himself, the Ministry of Science, Science, Technology and Innovation headed by Roberto Salvarezza and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Felipe Solá.

Asked about it, Salvarezza said the government was following the scientific and technological development of the four vaccines under development in Cuba, two at the Finlay Institute and two at the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

“The Fanlay has the Sovereign II vaccine, which is a recombinant protein. It is a very good vaccine which is in phase three. They plan to produce 100 million doses. Cuba has 11 million inhabitants, so there are possibilities to acquire vaccines, ”he said.

On the other hand, Vizzotti revealed that Fernández had personally called the co-founder and chairman of the moderna pharmaceutical company, Noubar Afeyan, to buy him vaccines. Afeyan replied that it is only for the second semester that there would be a possibility of secondment.

With Pfizer, there are no negotiations. There were, but the company demanded changes to the vaccine law aimed at generating acquired immunity against the 27,573 coronavirus that the government was unwilling to agree to.

Vaccines already purchased

Argentina has some 7,266,500 vaccines against Covid-19 in its territory. Among them are Sputnik V; those of Oxford-AstraZeneca of the Covax mechanism; the Sinopharm; and the Covishields.

Regarding supplies, Vizzotti said that “around April 15” there will be news of the date of new shipments of the drug Sinopharm. And AstraZeneca has reported that between April and May, it will ship 1.5 million doses.

“Negotiations with (the American laboratory) Novavax and another (Johnson & Johnson) for the Janssen vaccine are being finalized so that Argentina also has these vaccines”, revealed Minister Vizzotti.

And he stressed that “between April and May” the 580,000 Covishields on hold are expected to arrive in the country.

“The Gamaleya Institute is making enormous efforts to prioritize Argentina as a strategic partner. If we look at the quantity of doses exported by Russia, the vast majority were undoubtedly received by Argentina. At the moment when they are available with the quality certificate, this is sought through Aerolineas Argentinas ”, he added.

AstraZeneca does not take long

Vizzotti also said that AstraZeneca had no delays in its deliveries to Argentina, given that “he always, always, always said it was the end of March or April, he never promised any vaccines. before “.

“Yes, AstraZeneca has had delays like all laboratories in producing vaccines in Europe and India, which has now made a decision for internal use,” he said. And he stressed that this laboratory with Argentina and Mexico has developed a strategy for Latin America to have vaccines.

“Argentina is even a little advanced with antigen production times. What has happened is that due to difficulties in some supplies in Mexico (where it is divided), the company decided to create a strategy in the United States, which will allow us to have 900,000 doses. in April, ”he said.