Argentina and Mexico will produce the Oxford vaccine 1:07
(CNN Spanish) –– The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, announced that his country and Mexico will produce the vaccine against covid-19 developed by the AstraZeneca laboratory together with the University of Oxford.
The president added that, with the financial support of the Slim Foundation, the production of between 150 and 250 million doses was agreed for Latin America, with the exception of Brazil.
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"Latin American production will be in charge of Argentina and Mexico, and that will allow timely and efficient access for all countries in the region," Fernández said during a press conference with the Minister of Health, Ginés González García , and the Secretary for Access to Health, Carla Vizzotti.
Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Relations said it will release more information on this agreement on Thursday. Marcelo Ebrard, Foreign Minister of Mexico, tweeted that later, together with the Secretary of Health, they would announce "the agreements reached to produce in Mexico and Argentina, with crucial support from the Carlos Slim Foundation, between 150 and 250 million doses" of the vaccine that AstraZeneca works on.
Tomorrow we will announce with the Secretary of Health the agreements reached to produce in Mexico and Argentina, with crucial support from the Carlos Slim Foundation, between 150 and 250 million doses of the vaccine developed by Alestra-Zeneca to deal with Covid-19 .
- Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) August 13, 2020
For their part, AstraZeneca and the Carlos Slim Foundation reported in a statement issued this Wednesday that they reached an agreement to "contribute to the production in Argentina and Mexico, and distribution without economic benefit in Latin America" of the potential vaccine against covid- 19 during the pandemic.
According to the ruling, the agreement will provide "initially 150 million doses in the region." The statement explained that Brazil is excluded from the agreement, as "it will be covered by the AstraZeneca agreement with the Brazilian government announced last June."
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The vaccine, which has not yet been approved and is in phase 3, would be ready by the first half of 2021 at a cost between $ 3 and $ 4 per dose.
President Fernández said that "this puts Argentina in a place of tranquility, of being able to have the vaccine in a timely manner when we need it and in sufficient quantity to be able to cover the demand immediately."
In turn, González García expressed his joy and highlighted the national production capacity. "It is not easy to produce the raw material for a vaccine of this complexity," he assured. He mentioned the importance of some studies that affirm the extraordinary capacity of this vaccine with a single dose.
With information from Fidel Gutiérrez.
ArgentinaCarlos SlimMexicoUniversity of OxfordCoronavirus vaccine