Argentina to co-produce coronavirus vaccine with Mexico

Argentine President Alberto Fernández has announced that Argentina and Mexico will co-produce millions of doses of a coronavirus vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, for distribution across Latin America.

Fernández, speaking at a press conference at the Olivos presidential residence this evening, said that the two countries would be in charge of the Latin American production and distribution of a vaccine created by Oxford researchers and AstraZeneca, a Swedish-British pharmaceutical group.

Argentina will be in charge of producing “the active substance,” with Mexico finishing “production and packaging” of up to 100 million doses.

He said that Argentina - where AstraZeneca operates both lab and production facilities - “could be in a position to vaccinate” by the first quarter of 2021.

Both countries have been hard-hit by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, with Argentina recording over 5,200 deaths and Mexico, 54,000.

Latin America has recorded around 227,000 Covid-19 deaths thus far - some 30% of the world's total.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/argentina-to-produce-coronavirus-vaccine-from-university-of-oxford.phtml

Argentine President Alberto Fernández (center) discusses today's vaccine production and distribution agreement with Health Minister Ginés González García (second from right), and AstraZeneca Argentina officials Agustín Lamas and Agustina Elizalde.

Today's agreement envisages the production and distribution for Latin America of up to 100 million doses by March 2021, in collaboration with AstraZeneca Mexico.