Mexico will distribute the "Latin American vaccine" at the end of May after weeks of delay

The Liomont laboratory where AstraZeneca's covid-19 vaccines are packaged, in Mexico on February 22. GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO

AstraZeneca's “Latin American vaccine” finally has a release date. After weeks of delay, the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, confirmed this Monday that the first batches have already been produced and will be released for application this month. For his part, the Argentine president, Alberto Fernández, has specified that it will be around the end of May. This new date, which is at least a month late with respect to the original plan, already places the ambitious agreement between Mexico and Argentina to distribute 250 million doses in the region on the starting line. Until now, no vial of this vaccine had been applied and the agreement had only left cross accusations between the partners.

Last summer, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced that two Latin American laboratories would be in charge of producing and supplying their vaccine in the region.

The Argentine mAbxience, from the Insud group, would manufacture the active substance in the doses, and the Mexican Liomont would complete the finishing and packaging process.

In the middle, the foundation of the Mexican magnate Carlos Slim would finance the high production costs.

The plan, sold as a success of the alliance forged between Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Alberto Fernández, has encountered shortages and delays in supplying the vials in recent months.

More information

• Mexico insists on packaging of covid vaccines despite production delays

• Hugo Sigman, the man who will vaccinate Latin America against covid-19

Since February, millions of covid-19 vaccines manufactured in Buenos Aires have been waiting in warehouses. They could not be used because the Liomont plant in Ocoyoacac (State of Mexico) lacked basic supplies such as filters, sterile bags, vials or biological excipients to finish the product. At first, the delay was attributed to the global shortage of products. However, shortly after, businessman Hugo Sigman, owner of the Buenos Aires factory, publicly distanced himself from the delays and blamed the bottleneck on his Mexican partner.

Liomont assured EL PAÍS that he did have the supplies and that the vaccine was underway. The laboratory defended that it was not until March that it received the license and the manufacturing permit. The original plan, confirmed by Ebrard, assumed that the vaccines would begin to be delivered in April. The period had been calculated from the fact that the packaging, as reported by the authorities, began in March and then began a period of tests and certifications to guarantee the production standards of the vaccine with an expected duration of four weeks.

This Monday, after announcing the news of the first doses produced, the Secretary of Foreign Relations came out to defend the Mexican laboratory: “The final filling and packaging process is complex and has many quality requirements.

It is an important achievement for Liomont and COFEPRIS to have solved it satisfactorily ”.

5.7 million bulk doses of AstraZeneca arrived from Buenos Aires to be packaged at the Liomont plant, Ocoyoacac, State of Mexico.

The good news is that the first batches have already been produced and will be released this month for application.

pic.twitter.com/weGdk7Zxyh

- Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) May 10, 2021

In his Twitter account, the Chancellor's usual platform for vaccination announcements, Ebrard has pointed out that these batches will allow a "supply of vaccines with much greater certainty from the end of May" and has praised Mexico's role in "increasing the production of AstraZeneca vaccine ”in the region.

Today 5.3 million new bulk doses have been received from Buenos Aires.

These are in addition to the 18 million vaccines stored in Mexico that arrived from Argentina until mid-April, according to the tracking of shipments reported by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

The Argentine businessman said a couple of months ago that at the peak of production it was planned to send up to 25 million doses per month.

This agreement is essential for vaccination in Mexico, which had planned 77 million doses of locally produced AstraZeneca.

The delays had forced the country to borrow nearly three million doses from the White House to complete the mass vaccination of those over 60.

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