Mexico develops own COVID-19 vaccine
-
Loading... - Cabrera Azul
- 08 May 2023
- 68 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Mexican officials have proudly announced the development of the country's own COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday, more than two years after vaccines from the United States, Europe, and China were introduced. The vaccine, known as "Patria" or "Motherland," was created as a collaborative effort between the government and Avimex, a Mexican company with prior experience in developing animal vaccines.
However, the potential use of the vaccine remains unclear, given that vaccine adoption in Mexico has dropped significantly in late 2022 and 2023. Additionally, the country still has millions of doses of the Abdala vaccine imported from Cuba, designed for coronavirus variants circulating in 2020 or 2021, not current strains.
María Elena Álvarez-Buylla, the head of Mexico's government commission for science and technology, stated that the new vaccine would be approved as a booster shot. Still, it is unknown if the government's medical approval agency has given formal authorization to use the Patria vaccine.
Dr. Fidel Alejandro Sánchez, a council member of researchers responsible for monitoring virus variants in Mexico, expressed doubts about using a vaccine designed two years ago as a booster to protect against currently circulating strains.
Although Mexico began developing the Patria vaccine in March 2020, testing was delayed, and the country ended up importing 225 million doses, mainly from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, along with some Chinese vaccines.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been striving to make the country self-sufficient in various industries while also supporting Cuba. "This paves the way for the recovery of vaccine sovereignty," Álvarez-Buylla said.
