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By Anthony Esposito and Adriana Barrera
MEXICO CITY, Aug 15 (Reuters) - Mexico will need up to 200
million coronavirus vaccine doses, according to a senior
government official, and inoculation of its 120 million
inhabitants could start as early as April if clinical trials and
regulatory approvals for pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca Plc
go as planned.
In partnership with the governments of Mexico and Argentina,
AstraZeneca initially plans to produce 150 million doses in
early 2021 and eventually make at least 400 million doses for
distribution throughout Latin America. AstraZeneca is among
those working on COVID-19 vaccine candidates now in development
around the world.
Mexico's government also has said it is considering other
options for bringing a vaccine quickly to its population, the
second-largest in Latin America.
AstraZeneca will be able to produce between 30 and 35
million vaccines per month, Martha Delgado, a Mexican deputy
foreign minister, told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
The vaccine could require two doses to be effective, Delgado
said.
"If we need 200 million, we're going to be vaccinating for a
long time," Delgado added.
Last-stage so-called Phase III trials are expected to
conclude by November or December, after which AstraZeneca will
seek government approvals if the vaccine is found to be safe and
effective. If that goes smoothly, Delgado estimated the first
vaccines in Mexico could be administered in April.
Mexico's death toll of 55,908 stands as the world's third
highest, behind the United States and Brazil. Latin America's 6
million cases and more than 237,000 deaths make it the world's
hardest-hit region.
To ensure all Mexicans have access to a vaccine, President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's government is in talks with other
pharmaceutical laboratories in different stages of developing a
vaccine.
"Astra's production isn't going to be enough for Mexico. We
need to supplement that with a couple of more vaccines," Delgado
said.
Mexico's government has completed memorandums of
understanding with French drugmaker Sanofi, Johnson &
Johnson's Janssen unit and Chinese companies CanSino
Biologics Inc and Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd
.
CanSino and Walvax are interested in producing a vaccine in
Mexico for delivery to the Latin American market.
Mexico's health authorities are evaluating the Phase I and
II clinical trials of those four companies and will determine
the viability of Phase III studies in Mexico in the coming
weeks, Delgado said. The earlier phase trials represent an
initial test of a vaccine's safety and effectiveness among small
numbers of subjects.
To save time, Mexico's federal health regulator COFEPRIS
will start analyzing AstraZeneca's completed studies and
accelerate approvals if Phase III is successful.
"This is the country's strategy to diversify our
possibilities of having access to the vaccine as soon as
possible ... and obviously at an affordable cost for the
country," Delgado said.
(Reporting by Anthony Esposito and Adriana Barrera; Editing by
Will Dunham)
