COFEPRIS Approves AstraZeneca Vaccine

On Monday evening, both Marcelo Ebrard and Hugo López-Gatell announced on Twitter that the AstraZeneca vaccine had been approved for emergency use by COFEPRIS. “Today, Jan. 4 2021, COFEPRIS authorized AstraZeneca’s vaccine for emergency use against SARS-CoV-2,” tweeted López-Gatell. A committee from COFEPRIS started checking the file on Dec. 30 and on Jan. 4, they had a session to discuss where they deliberated and unanimously agreed on the approval of the vaccine for emergency use, López-Gatell said in a statement, according to Forbes Mexico. Recently, the vaccine had been approved by the UK, which rejoiced with another step taken against COVID-19. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been shown to be effective, well-tolerated, simple to administer and is also supplied by the company at no profit, making the vaccine much cheaper.

Muy buena noticia la aprobación de emergencia de la vacuna AztraZeneca por parte de COFEPRIS!!!! Con ello se iniciará muy pronto la producción en México !!!

— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) January 5, 2021

As of Dec. 30, Mexico had pre-purchased 77.4 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, reported Animal Politico. The vaccine has a reported efficacy rate of 70 percent, with a two-dose regimen according to studies in the UK and Brazil, reported MBN. Its advantage, however, is that it does not need ultra-freezing storage like Pfizer’s development, which was the first vaccine used in Mexico against COVID-19. Instead, it can be stored in temperatures ranging from 2°C to 8°C. The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine will be produced in Latin America at laboratories in Mexico and Argentina, with economic support from Fundación Slim. A few days ago, COFEPRIS announced that for the optimization of production times, a group of lab experts had been designated to work on different technical areas. Between 150 million and 250 million doses are expected to be produced in Argentina, which will then be transferred to Liomont in Mexico for packaging. The company has a production capacity of 2 to 15 million doses in its vaccine division, reported Forbes Mexico.

With the recent approval, now Mexico has two vaccines to fight SARS-CoV-2 and avoid more contagions in the country. “The AstraZeneca [vaccine] was manufactured in times of the pandemic and it is a very accessible vaccine […] Its application will begin in late March or early April,” announced Martha Delgado, Deputy Minister for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, reported UnoTV. She also mentioned the ministry is working on accelerating the approval of the CanSino vaccine. You can read more about this development in our other articles.