Mexico City (AFP)
Argentina was to send Monday to Mexico the active ingredient necessary for the development of some six million doses of the vaccine against Covid-19 developed by the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, announced a Mexican minister.
Thanks to this shipment, the finalization in Mexico of this vaccine will be possible, said the Mexican Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard on his Twitter account.
The Mexican health regulator, Cofepris, on January 4 authorized the use of this vaccine, which should be available from March, depending on the production capacities of the manufacturers.
Its "active ingredient" is produced in Argentina by the bio-pharmacy firm mAbxience before being shipped to Mexico where the vaccine will be produced by the Liomont laboratory.
The two laboratories will be able to produce around 250 million doses to meet demand in Latin America, according to the Mexican government.
Mexico has already placed an order with AstraZeneca to acquire 77.4 million doses.
He also made deals to acquire other vaccines, including the Russian Sputnik V.
Mexico, with 128 million inhabitants, is the fourth most affected country in the world in terms of the death toll from the pandemic, with 140,704 deaths, according to the latest data collected by AFP from official figures .
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