Mexico City, March 22 (reuters) – The Mexican government will continue with its plan to package the Russian vaccine against covid-19 sputnik v in the country because President Andrés Manuel López Obrador argued on Tuesday that health has nothing to do with deal with political conflicts.
In October, the state-owned Biological and Reagent Laboratories of Mexico (Birmex) signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets Sputnik, for the packaging of the biological in the Latin American nation.
“We are going to continue with our plan, and the commitments that were made are maintained,” said the president, who has ruled out economic retaliation against Russia after its military attack on Ukraine.
“Health has nothing to do with political conflicts,” he added in his daily press conference.
When announcing the agreement with the RDIF in October, the Government explained that Birmex carried out pilot tests of Sputnik V and sent them to the Gamaleya Center, creator of the vaccine, which gave it the go-ahead to package it. However, certification from the Mexican health regulator Cofepris is still missing.
A person from the communication area of that unit told Reuters that “this process implies that Cofepris has to receive a technology transfer from the creators of the vaccine.”
Once the authorization is received, for which there is still no deadline, according to the local regulator, Sputnik V is expected to be applied first in Mexico and then distributed to countries in Central America and the Caribbean that are interested, according to the government plans. (Report by Raúl Cortés Fernández)
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