MEXICO – The Mexican government began this Monday with the distribution of the first 955,720 vaccines out of a total of 35 million purchased from the Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino, which are packaged at a Drugmex plant in the city of Querétaro, in the center of the country.
The government specified, in a statement, that of the total doses released 327,510 correspond to the first batch, 318,830 to the second and 309,380 to the third.
“It is very honored for us to say that Mexico was the first country in the world to approve the CanSino vaccine and today we are also the first country outside of China to package this vaccine,” said Martha Delgado, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs of the Secretariat of Foreign Relations (SRE).
With this first batch of CanSino, Mexico adds more than 9 million of various drugs received: 3.89 million from the American Pfizer, 870,000 from the British AstraZeneca, 3 million from the Chinese Sinovac and 400,000 from the Russian Sputnik V.
Mexico was one of the first countries to start the COVID-19 vaccination on December 24, but given the lag in deliveries so far it has only administered 5.6 million doses to the population.
For this reason, at the event at the plant, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard recognized the importance of the CanSino vaccine, tested in Mexico with a general efficacy of 65% and with the main advantage of requiring only one dose, which can be refrigerated for between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
Families fear face-to-face classes, because the coronavirus does not respect minors.
“It has been proven that it works, that it is effective, that it is safe for our genetics, for our needs. I must also say that by being single-dose we will be able to go faster,” he said.
Mexico is the third country with the most deaths from COVID-19 with more than 198,000 deaths and almost 2.2 million confirmed cases, which is why the government has bet on early access to the vaccine to control the pandemic.
Given the backwardness of Western pharmaceutical companies, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador extended the negotiations to Russia and China.
Foreign Minister Ebrard recalled that Mexico has also pre-purchased 20 million of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine and 10 million of Sinopharm, for which he thanked the intervention of the Chinese Ambassador, Zhu Qingqiao, present at the event.
“Mexico will never forget what you and China have done for us in this difficult hour,” he said.
Ambassador Qingquiao also highlighted “friendly cooperation” with Mexico and China’s commitment to equitable distribution of drugs.
It has only 81 inhabitants who have been free of infections for almost a year.
“Vaccines are powerful weapons against the virus and bring us hope to save lives, so they must be at the service of the whole world and benefit all of humanity. China is firmly at the forefront of international cooperation,” he said.
Although the active substance in CanSino arrived on February 11 and the first 2 million doses were expected in the second half of March, the factory had delays in complying with the protocols of the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).
Precisely this Monday, Cofepris authorized for emergency use the first three batches of the CanSino Biologics vaccine that were produced in China, packaged in our country and that were in the process of analysis by the Commission for Analytical Control and Expansion of Coverage (CCAyAC ), from March 5, 2021.
The Drugmex plant in Querétaro has a production capacity of up to 85 million doses per year and during the emergency it will be “exclusively dedicated” to the CanSino container.
“For this reason, this plant will supply not only the Mexican market, but also other countries on the continent and the world,” revealed Guy Jean Savoir, president of the Drugmex board.
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