Pfizer-BioNTech’s Bivalent Vaccine Ready for Use in Mexico and Challenges Facing the Pharmaceuticals Industry

One of the main innovations brought by the pandemic was the vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech against him covid-19, this not only allowed its development in record time but also its adaptation to the new variants of the virus. Now The American pharmaceutical company has the bivalent vaccine readywhich only awaits the regular health registration before the cofepris for your use.

“The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has immunized more than 41 million Mexicans”, affirms Constanza Losada, general director of the pharmaceutical company.

The also president of the Mexican Association of Pharmaceutical Research Industries (AMIIF) notes that Pfizer It not only produces vaccines, but also has a large portfolio in different therapeutic areas such as: oncology, rare diseases, internal medicine, antivirals.

What are the challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry?

One of the big challenges is shorten the gap in access to health for Mexicans. It is important to continue strengthening the intersectoral dialogue that promotes this ecosystem of innovation for the benefit of the people who live in the country.

Thanks to the great advances of the pharmaceutical industry, patients have longer liveshealthy and productive, and that is where we must place all our efforts.

Another challenge is non-communicable diseases. Every year in Latin America more than 2.2 million people die prematurely and this is one of the most important factors in countries’ burden of disability. It is estimated that the cost to the world economy will be 30 trillion dollars in 2023, it is also expected that in the coming years there may be a 50% growth in non-communicable diseases and this has a direct impact on the economic growth of the countries. countries of up to 2.5 percent of the World Gross Domestic Product.

How big is the Mexican market for the pharmaceutical company?

It is one of the company’s largest markets worldwide and the second in Latin America. In recent years we have grown steadily, only in 2022 our therapies in Mexico changed the lives of more than 18 million Mexicans; It is a great achievement, but also a huge responsibility to give access to health.

During the last three years we had a very important role in the fight against the pandemic. Pfizer-BioNTech’s covid-19 vaccine has immunized more than 41 million Mexicans, it has also been the only one applied to minors in the country, to date we have vaccinated more than 8.5 million adolescents and more than 9 million children. We also created the antiviral treatment.

But Pfizer not only produces vaccines, we have a very broad portfolio in different therapeutic areas such as oncology, rare diseases, internal medicine, antivirals and immunology. We have the goal of reaching 30 new treatments in 2020-2025, where 11 of them have already been launched during the pandemic. We are bringing to the market new therapies for atopic dermatitis or migraine.

In these 72 years of history in the country, Pfizer has worked in favor of the health of Mexicans and we remain very committed to that path.

How important is Mexico for the pharmaceutical company?

Pfizer Mexico is one of the most important operations for the company worldwide. We currently invest 15 percent of our revenue in research and development.

Worldwide, we have 89 innovation and development projects. We have a very important clinical research center in the country, where we have invested more than 50 million dollars in recent years. We work to bring these 89 projects and put them in the hands of Mexicans as soon as possible.

Our main job at Pfizer is improve people’s health through scientific processes that improve timely diagnoses, treatments and vaccines.

How many medicines are produced in the plant in Mexico? We invest around 10 million dollars a year to continue to update both the equipment and safety standards, at the Toluca plant. We currently produce 48 million treatment units per year in Mexico, where 70% are to supply the Mexican market and the remaining 30% is exported to all of Latin America.

During the pandemic we were clear that the number one priority was that all the treatments would reach the hands of the Mexicans and Latin Americans. We were very consistent in the supply.

What comes with the bivalent vaccine?

an important factor for an effective immunization against covid-19 is that the vaccines adaptThis is one of the advantages of the messenger RNA technology used by Pfizer, it has allowed us to adapt the original formula to the new circulating variants. It must be remembered that although the OMS announced the end of the health emergency, this does not mean that the virus no longer exists, we have to learn to live with it, since it continues to circulate in the streets.

We are awaiting the decision of the Mexican regulatory entity for the emergency use of the bivalent vaccine, to have the vaccine for the private market, beyond the decision made by the government in terms of its vaccination plan.

CASA