The Government of Mexico formalized pre-purchase contracts for COVID-19 vaccine with AstraZeneca, CanSino Biologics and Pfizer to cover more than 100 million Mexicans.

In the framework of the press conference led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, reported on the progress in Mexico’s strategy to guarantee universal access and fair prices to the vaccine against COVID- 19. This week, the Government of Mexico signed three pre-purchase contracts with the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca, CanSino Biologics and Pfizer to acquire sufficient doses of vaccines to cover, together with those obtained in the COVAX mechanism, up to 116 million Mexican people.

The Foreign Affairs Secretary reported that the three pre-purchase agreements signed with the pharmaceutical companies could cover a range of between 81.4 and 90.9 million people. These agreements meet the search criteria for low-risk mechanisms and protect Mexico from price surges due to excess demand. Besides, they diversify the portfolio to which our country has access, including both vaccines based on inactivated viruses and viral vectors, as well as more modern and flexible technologies.

During the conference, the Secretary presented details of each of the agreements. AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines must be administered in two doses. The agreement signed with AstraZeneca is for 77.4 million doses that would be available between March and August 2021. In the case of Pfizer, the deal is for between 15.5 and 34.4 million doses, depending on what the health sector agrees. These vaccines would arrive in Mexico between December 2020 and December 2021.

Regarding the CanSino Biologics vaccine, which is a single dose, will have a supply flow of 35 million doses between December 2020 and September 2021. These pre-purchase agreements are in addition to the advance recently paid to the mechanism international COVAX to guarantee access to 51.5 million doses that would cover 25 million Mexicans.

The Foreign Affairs Minister affirmed that “we should be proud that Mexico has contributed, through the voice of its President, to that today we can have a multilateral mechanism -COVAX- in which more than 100 countries participate. This will allow Mexico and other countries, to access up to 20% of the vaccines for our population”. He recalled that the portfolio of this mechanism already has 18 vaccines to which our country will have access.

Secretary Ebrard stressed: “Of all the activities in which I have participated in my public life, this is the one I am most proud of, and of my country and of my President.”

He also reported that among the vaccines that are part of the portfolio are the ones developed by AstraZeneca, BioPharma, CureVac, Inovio, Merck, Moderna, the universities of Hong Kong, Queensland and Oxford; in addition to the ones from China, South Korea, the United States and the United Kingdom.

In compliance with the instructions of the President of Mexico to guarantee universal coverage for our population, with the COVAX mechanism plus the agreements mentioned above “the availability of sufficient doses to vaccinate more than 100 million Mexicans is guaranteed, putting Mexico in the same condition as the most advanced countries, such as the United States and the European Union” said the Foreign Affairs Secretary.

Also, as a result of this strategy developed by the Presidency of the Republic and executed by the Ministry of Health and the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mexico will carry out several phases 3 clinical trials of various developments, among which are: Janssen, from the United States; Sputnik V, from Russia; CanSino Biologics, from China; Novavax, from the United States; Curevac, from Germany; Sanofi-Pasteur, from France, and ReiThera, from Italy.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advances and endorses the vision of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to guarantee universal, early and equitable access to vaccines against COVID-19. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was accompanied by: Jorge Alcocer Varela, Secretary of Health; Marcelo Ebrard Casaubon, Secretary of Foreign Affairs; Arturo Herrera Gutiérrez, Secretary of Finance; Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion; Martha Delgado Peralta, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights; Sylvia Lorena Varela Ramón, President and CEO of AstraZeneca Mexico; Lizete de la Torre García, Director of Corporate Affairs and Health & Value at Pfizer México, and Yu Xuefeng, CEO of CanSino Biologics.