They ask Cofepris to support the arrival of anticovid vaccines

The Mexican Association for Pharmaceutical Innovation Industries (AMIIF) made an urgent call for the Mexican health regulator, Cofepris, to grant approval so that updated vaccines for protection against Covid19 and against seasonal flu enter Mexico .

Likewise, for the dengue vaccine, which is also urgently needed due to the events in Guerrero and other places in the country.

The general director of AMIIF, Larry Rubin, for anticovid vaccines, said that the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna quickly started the relevant process at the beginning of the year before the health authority, but so far they have not received a response, and there already despair in this regard because If there is no quick response, the doses will not be able to arrive in time for the Mexican population. And this would mean that we will not have these therapeutic tools as a country this year because of the risk of diseases that today are already prevented.

One of the things that is worrying about the possible outbreak at the end of the year is that there was an increase in infections in the summer. Preliminary data from INEGI shows that 212,404 deaths were recorded from January to March 2024, which shows an increase of almost 5,000 compared to 2023.

“We are already in the middle of October, the cold weather is about to arrive and with the great risks of respiratory diseases, and if Cofepris does not give permission soon to be able to import the vaccines, they will not be available for the vaccinations. Rubin told El Economista, pointing out that, in addition, medical centers still have to request vaccinations for patients.

What is worrying, he said, is that they have no indication of a possible date for when the decision would be made, and he added that the process to bring them to the far country, but especially to the network of medical centers throughout the country.

“The approval from the health authority is only the first step, but if we are almost in the middle of October and that first step has not been taken, forget about steps 2, 3, 4 and 5 , and just as we’re going we’ll do that. get the vaccinations. “

The situation for this winter is that the Pfizer and Moderna anticovid vaccines, which are in their fifth edition, have been updated to protect against the latest version, and the previous versions that were not allowed by regulators in previous years are no longer issued.

Part of the problem, the AMIIF representative believes, is that the current administration has not named a new head of the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks, so the agency is without a head and is not making actions for such vital decisions that are relevant to the Mexican population, especially for sections of patients in vulnerable situations that increase their risk due to living with chronic chronic diseases or due to a slight weakening of the immune system. “Whether there is a commission or not, patients are a priority, and it must be seen that patients receive vaccines in a timely manner, and as a business we want to support the authority to achieve this,” he said.