Between 150 Y 250 millions. That was the number of AstraZeneca vaccines that were supposed to be available to combat the coronavirus in Latin America in the first half of 2021.
At least that is what the presidents of Argentina and Mexico had announced last August, after announcing that private companies in their countries would jointly produce the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and the UK-based pharmaceutical company.
The project, financed by the foundation of the millionaire Carlos Slim , had the objective of producing and distributing vaccines throughout Latin America (with the exception of Brazil, which has its own agreement).
However, reaching May, not a single dose of this precious antiviral is yet available.
The absence of this key element in the fight against covid – South America, which is experiencing a rapid increase in cases due to the second wave of the pandemic.
One of the most pressured by the lack of this vaccine is the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, who had the antiviral produced by his country and Mexico as the main weapon in his vaccination strategy.
At the end of 2020 the Fernández government signed with AstraZeneca its first and largest purchase of vaccines: 73, 4 million doses.
The first 2.3 million inoculations should be available last March, and another 4 million in April. However, so far the country – which has a record of daily infections – has not received a single dose of that contract.
This led many to criticize the government for having prioritized the agreement with AstraZeneca over other options, such as the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine, pharmaceutical companies with which the Argentine authorities could not reach an agreement, as did several of their neighbors, including Uruguay and Chile.
Some They even accused the government of having ignored Pfizer-BioNtech to favor the Insud Group, responsible for the “Argentine leg” of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine production, something that the authorities denied.
Amid rumors and tensions, Argentine pharmaceutical businessman Hugo Sigman, owner of Grupo In sud, took to social media to reject the accusations and explain why the production of the vaccine has been delayed .
What happened?
Sigman, whose laboratory, mAbxience, is the one that manufactures the active ingredient of the AstraZeneca vaccine, assured Through a series of tweets that the problem does not have to do with that process, which is carried out in Argentina, but with the one that comes later: packaging, which is carried out in Mexico.
“Packaging each type of vaccine requires a series of specific equipment and supplies that, due to the high demand global, today they are impossible to get quickly “, he wrote on his Twitter account in the past 19 April.
“This is, in fact, the problem faced in Mexico by the Liomont laboratory, which formulates, breaks up and packages the active principle that mAbxience produces in Argentina and that determined a delay in the start of production. ”
In this way, Sigman completely separated itself from the delays.
He even clarified that “as of today mAbxience has fulfilled and manufactured the active principle to which we had committed, both in time and quantity.”
BBC Mundo contacted Liomont in Mexico, which so far has not made public statements about the delay in vaccine production, but until the time of publication of this article did not receive a response .
Laboratory sources did ensure that the process continues “in a timely manner.” However, the government of Mexico itself already recognized the delay with the packaging of AstraZeneca vaccines in the country.
What they say in Mexico
The BBC Mundo correspondent in that country, Marcos González Díaz, pointed out that the delays were recently recognized by whom Hugo López-Gatell, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, is considered the “coronavirus czar” and the main face of the Mexican government in the face of the pandemic.
Consulted the past 22 of April, during his daily press conference on the covid, on when these vaccines would be ready in Mexico, the official admitted that is a subject “that causes concern” .
“The packaging process has required several elements of calibration so that it is in the highest possible quality standards”, he explained.
“During a time, a small delay of approx imadamente some 10 Y 014 days that had to do with the worldwide shortage of filters, a very specific component of the manufacturing process. This was already solved several weeks ago, more than a month and a half, and right now we are already in the packaging process “, he pointed out.
However, he clarified that the last part of the process is still missing : “The sanitary verification (…) that lasts 18 days ”.
López-Gatell added that“ there is still an additional step ”.
“The company, not Liomont, but the company Astra (Zeneca), at its headquarters in Oxford, is proposing that a few more days are needed for a specific technical process that has to do with the quality of the packaging. ”
” In short, “he concluded,” we still have delay and there is no precise date sa release “, he acknowledged.
For his part, this Wednesday the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, also referred to the delay:” The official statement we have is that they are difficulties in supplies, adjustments in their formulas regarding the active substance, but in summary, that delivery of this vaccine to Mexico would be regularized in May “, he said.
AstraZeneca statement
Ebrard’s statements coincided with the publication of a statement by AstraZeneca in Argentina.
After a meeting with the Minister of Health of that country, representatives of the Swedish-British pharmaceutical company released a message in which they acknowledge a delay, but guarantee prompt delivery of vaccines.
“ We regret to confirm a delay in our intention to start shipments earlier to Latin America despite working tirelessly to accelerate the supply ”, They indicated.
However, assured that “AstraZeneca continues on the way to supply 150 million doses of the covid vaccine – 19 in Latin America, excluding Brazil, in this year. ”
“ We are delivering our vaccine, without any financial profit for us during the pandemic, starting from the first half of the year as we announced last August “, they highlighted.
Latin American Sputnik?
Despite the problems in the manufacture of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Mexico and Argentina could once again collaborate in the manufacture of another vaccine against the coronavirus: the Sputnik V of Russia.
“After a meeting in Moscow between Foreign Minister Ebrard, and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, this Wednesday it was announced that Mexico will begin packaging the Russian Sputnik vaccine in May,” reported the BBC Mundo correspondent in Mexico.
“Ebrard said that the Birmex state-owned laboratory will produce the vaccine in the country, in collaboration with the Russian Direct Investment Fund,” he explained.
Last week, the Argentine laboratory Richmond announced that will produce the active substance of the Russian vaccine in Buenos Aires.
Thus, Argentina became the first country in Latin America to begin production of Sputnik V.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the Argentine pharmaceutical company has already produced a first batch of the vaccine, which will be sent to the Gamaleya Center (creator of Sputnik V) for quality control.
Large-scale production in Argentina is scheduled for June , and Richmond anticipated that it will start with 1 million doses, although it plans to increase monthly production to 5 million.
The EFE agency reported that the The Mexican government views with “sympathy” the possibility of importing the biological from Argentina to be packaged in the country.
“The question now is to know if any of the causes of the delay in the packaging of AstraZeneca in Mexico could also affect this new plan with the Russian vaccine,” said González Díaz.
“What could it depend on? Well, equipment that we do not have in Mexico, which must be obtained in the international market ”, replied Ebrard about the possibility that Sputnik’s packaging may also suffer delays.
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