MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico on Thursday received its largest COVID-19 vaccine shipment yet, in the form of the active ingredient for 2 million doses of CanSino shot in China, a relief for the Latin American country after slow delivery on orders of Western companies.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard acknowledged China’s support and thanked CanSino Biologics Inc. for the ‘timely shipment’ in a tweet.
“We always give thanks,” Ebrard said.
Mexico has entered into an agreement with CanSino for at least 8 million doses to be delivered between February and March. Its health regulator on Wednesday authorized the emergency use of the vaccine, which is helping to bring CanSino shares to a peak.
Mexico also approved China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd vaccine the same day.
The CanSino shipment is the latest example from Mexico looking for alternatives to complement its faltering vaccine campaign, as Western major companies like Pfizer announce the slow-moving global shipment.
The situation is urgent in the economy no. 2 in Latin America, with the third highest death rate in the world at 169,760, according to government data. It is believed that the actual score is much higher.
Mexico also has an agreement for 24 million doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine, in one of the larger agreements.
It was unclear whether Mexico would distribute the CanSino vaccine, which will be packaged in the central part of Queretero, before administering doses of AstraZeneca, which also packs it locally, in addition to importing 2 million doses from India.
The data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs weighed the CanSino shipment much heavier than the other expected deliveries in Mexico, including the 870,000 doses of AstraZeneca expected from India this month.
CanSino conducted Phase III trials in Mexico with 14,425 participants. Mexico said it was one of the world’s largest clinical COVID-19 trials.
The company has also conducted trials in Pakistan, Argentina, Chile and Russia.
Pakistan said earlier this week that CanSino’s vaccine showed 65.7% efficacy in preventing symptomatic cases and a 90.98% success rate in stopping serious diseases, according to an interim analysis of global trials.
Mexico relied on the Pfizer vaccine for weekly deliveries of approximately 400,000 doses before the shipment was delayed due to the World Health Organization (WHO) demand to be included in the COVAX program.
Mexico has pre-purchased 51.5 million vaccine doses through COVAX, although shipping has yet to begin.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Raul Cortes; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Marguerita Choy)