MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico on Thursday received the largest shipment of COVID-19 vaccine, in the form of an active ingredient for 2 million doses of the Chinese CanSino vaccine, a relief for the Latin American country after slow delivery orders from Western companies.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard acknowledged China’s support and thanked CanSino Biologics Inc for “timely delivery” in a tweet.
“Our gratitude always,” said Ebrard.
Mexico struck a deal with CanSino for at least 8 million doses to be delivered between February and March. His health regulator granted authorization for the emergency use of the vaccine on Wednesday, helping to boost CanSino’s actions to record levels.
Mexico also approved the Chinese vaccine Sinovac Biotech Ltd on the same day.
The CanSino remittance is Mexico’s most recent example in search of alternatives to complement its faltering vaccine campaign, while leading Western companies such as Pfizer announce that global remittances have declined.
The situation is urgent in the second economy in Latin America, with the third highest number of deaths from coronavirus in the world, with 169,760, according to government data. The actual count is believed to be much higher.
Mexico also has an agreement for 24 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, in one of its larger agreements.
It was not clear whether Mexico would start distributing the CanSino vaccine, which will be packaged in the central state of Queretero, before starting to administer doses of AstraZeneca, which is also packaged locally, in addition to importing 2 million doses from India.
The CanSino shipment far exceeds other deliveries expected from Mexico, including the 870,000 doses of AstraZeneca expected from India this month, according to data from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
CanSino conducted phase III tests in Mexico with 14,425 participants. Mexico said it was one of the largest COVID-19 clinical trials in the world.
The company also conducted tests in Pakistan, Argentina, Chile and Russia.
Pakistan said earlier this week that the CanSino vaccine showed 65.7% effectiveness in preventing symptomatic cases and a 90.98% success rate in preventing serious illnesses, according to an interim analysis of global tests.
Mexico had been relying on the Pfizer vaccine for weekly deliveries of around 400,000 doses before shipments were delayed due to demand from the World Health Organization (WHO) for inclusion in the COVAX program.
Mexico previously purchased 51.5 million doses of vaccine through COVAX, although shipments have not yet started.
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Raul Cortes; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Marguerita Choy)