Latin America maintains challenges in vaccination after 3 years of pandemic, according to Pfizer
EL NUEVO DIARIO, MEXICO CITY.- Three years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America, the region still has the challenge of ensuring that vaccines are available to the population and working so that people have their vaccination schedule complete, Andrew H. Martin, president of Pfizer’s Latin American Cluster, told EFE.
In an interview, the manager considered that although society seems to be ready to overcome the pandemic, “unfortunately the virus does not seem to agree.”
“He does not want to be left behind and it is something we will have to learn to live with,” he said.
Martin, who has worked in the health industry for 18 years, recalled that Latin America suffered disproportionately from the impact of covid-19.
“It is the region that has been most affected, the gross domestic product had a very significant contraction and more than 190 million cases of covid-19 have been reported, we lost almost a million people, but the most important thing is to have preventive measures” , he pointed.
FOCUS EFFORTS ON VACCINATION
Although Latin America has made great progress in vaccination against covid-19, for Martin it is important to promote that the population have their complete schemes.
“We must continue to focus on educating the population about the importance of having their covid vaccine and the importance of vaccines in general,” he said.
He regretted that, despite the fact that Pfizer has delivered almost 5,000 million anti-covid biologicals in the world, 506 million of them in Latin America, there are still many infections and thousands of people continue to die.
“There are people who do not have their full doses or who have not been vaccinated. So this is a critical issue for governments, that they are aware, that they tell people the importance of having their full vaccination schedule ”, she emphasized.
The manager said that, in addition, work should be done to recommend to citizens which vaccines they should get “and Pfizer has a very important role in all this.”
He expressed that in Latin America one of the great pending is to achieve complete vaccination schemes in the pediatric population.
“Governments must continue with vaccination programs and, if children begin to be educated, I know that we will have higher levels of vaccinated people in the region,” he said.
CONTINUE PROTECTING YOURSELF
The manager explained that the pandemic meant an enormous challenge for pharmaceutical companies that had to develop effective biologicals against the coronavirus in record time.
But three years after the pandemic, the biggest challenge is maintaining the availability of biologics, especially in regions like Latin America, where it has signed bilateral agreements with 14 countries for the supply of vaccines.
“Our priority is to make sure the vaccine is available. We know that there are many people who suddenly do not have access to health or there is no infrastructure, ”she said.
But also, he emphasized, it is necessary that there is authorization in the countries so that companies like Pfizer have a more active role and work with governments to guarantee access to biologicals.
“That the governments absorb that commitment, also monetary, so I think it is a combination of ensuring that the vaccines are available and also making programs to publicize organizations that can work together with the governments and generate this information,” he concluded.
FUTURE WORK
Martin specified that the pharmaceutical company is working on advances that help combat SARS-CoV-2, in addition to developing other vaccines for various diseases, such as the common flu.
“We have invested in messenger RNA platforms and we are reinforcing our commitment to science, to speed, to the possibility that we have because of science,” he added.
He pointed out that they are working on an annual vaccine for the coronavirus and its different variants, in addition to the fact that this biologic serves to protect children from 6 months of age and older adults, the main risk group.
In addition, he said, they develop drugs against migraine, prostate cancer and in total they expect to launch 66 products in the coming years.
“This also reflects our commitment to innovation and having the power to be on the side of science, the vision we have, how committed we are to science winning and disease losing,” he concluded.
