Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine: the leak to Mexico with the active ingredient remaining to produce six million doses

The goal is to produce 22.4 million for Argentina. (Photo: Reuters)

The initial shipment of the active ingredient from Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine He left this Tuesday from Argentina to Mexico, where six million doses against the coronavirus will be manufactured initially.

The flight left at 10 pm from Ezeiza international airport by the company AeroMéxico for the Mexican capital. There, the preparation and packaging of the serum against Covid-19 will begin and it will be the start of an operation that plans to produce between 150 and 250 million doses for Latin America.

// Ginés González García assured that Argentina “has 51 million vaccines insured”

The refrigerated vehicle with the active principle to develop six million doses arrived in Ezeiza on Monday with the care of a helicopter, and was transferred directly to the cold rooms located in the cargo terminal.

The shipment of raw material for the vaccine from Oxford / AstraZeneca follows approval from UK regulators and the National Administration for Drugs and Medical Technology (Anmat).

On August 12, the national government announced that Argentina would start get the coronavirus vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Oxford / AstraZeneca. The plan foresees that production, in charge of the country and Mexico, will supply the whole region during the first half of 2021. The doses will cost between $ 3 and $ 4 each.

The production phases

The production of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine for Latin America was made possible by an agreement between the university and the British laboratory with Argentina and Mexico.

Plan begins in Argentina via biotech company mAbxience (Insud Group), which is the active ingredient in the vaccine. In Mexico, the process of stabilization, manufacture and packaging of the different doses will be developed, which will be in charge of the laboratory. Liomont.

The goal is to provide a total of 150 to 250 million doses for the various Latin American countries, including 22.4 million will be for Argentina.

The mAbxience laboratory, of the Insud Group, was founded in 2009 and was chosen by AstraZeneca for the preparation of the active ingredient of the vaccine. The company has three production plants, two of which are in the country and the other in Spain. The Argentine headquarters are located in Munro and Garín.

Ginés González García assured that Argentina “has 51 million vaccines insured”

At the start of the application of second dose Russian vaccine against coronavirus Sputnik V, the Minister of Health Ginés González García He argued that if in the world “there are disadvantages in accessing and applying doses” in Argentina “there are no such problems”. He stressed that the country had received the vaccinations “according to the signed contracts”.

At a press conference at Posadas hospital, where he oversaw the start of the vaccination plan for the second dose of the vaccine, he said the application “is on time”. He said this new campaign complements the first round COVID-19 vaccination and is available 21 days after the first application, the minimum time required between the two inoculations.

He said Argentina assured “51 million vaccines” and criticized that “there is usually a lot of concern with malicious intent” about the doses the country will have to fight the pandemic. He recalled that there is an agreement signed with Astrazeneca and with the mechanism Covax and explained that negotiations are continuing with Pfizer. He said there were also conversations with Sinopharm, CanSino, Sinovac and Janssen to try to secure the developments of different suppliers.