Vaccination campaign

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the director of National Council of Humanities, Sciences and Technologies (Conahcyt), María Elena Álvarez-Buyllathey committed that the Mexican Patria vaccine would begin to be produced starting in September and would even be applied starting last month in the national anti-Covid-19 campaign; However, the biological is not yet ready.

Currently, the Conahcyt It does not have data on the production of the 4 million doses or the effectiveness of the Patria vaccine, despite being in charge of articulating the strategy and the fact that President López Obrador stated on October 25: “We are going to have it this year”to be used in the national vaccination campaign.

In response to a request regarding monthly vaccine production anti-Covid developed by the federal government, Deputy Directorate of Technological DevelopmentLinkage and Innovation of Conahcyt assured that “it does not have the requested information”, which also contradicts what was declared on May 3, 2023 by María Elena Alvarez-Buylladirector of the Council, stating that “from September to December there would be the installed capacity in the country to produce up to 4 million vaccines.”

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Conahcyt prepared the response to the query made by THE UNIVERSAL last November 1 and it arrived only on the 13th of this same month, which shows that two and a half months after it should have started producing the vaccine There is still no evidence of the process.

It also does not have the reports final technical of the project, despite the fact that Álvarez-Buylla maintained the opposite on May 3 in the conference press release of President López Obrador.

“It is now ready as reinforcement in all its phases. The results are already available that show that the vaccine meets the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), both in terms of security and in its protective capacity,” he said. However, the Deputy Directorate of Technological Development, Bonding and Innovation contradicted the official, since when questioned about the effectiveness of Patria to protect against the XBB 1.16 or EG.5.1 variants, she acknowledged that she still does not have the reports final technical of the vaccine.

“This address will have information once the final technical reports of the project corresponding to the development of the Patria vaccine are received,” Conahcyt specified in response to this newspaper’s request for information.

He also confirmed the allegations that question the effectiveness of the Patria vaccine due to the lack of definitive results from its clinical development, as he noted that “the Patria® vaccine project (AVX/COVID-12) against the SARS-CoV-2 virus is currently a booster vaccine, in terms of what is indicated by the Laboratory company Avi-Mex”.

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But when consulting the company’s terms on its portal electronicthis points out that the security of the Homeland vaccine “It will continue to be monitored in accordance with the investigation protocol that is still underway for these purposes.”

On April 17, THE UNIVERSAL published the note “Homeland, the vaccine that never arrived”, in which it indicated that the biological would be surpassed by the health emergency declared by the OMSsince it was imminent for the international organization to declare its completionwhich happened on May 5.

The cost of developing the productobtained through a request for information, which from 2020 to April 2023 was 422 million 897 thousand 939 pesos, according to the Conahcyt.

Later, on May 3, Álvarez-Buylla updated the investment to produce the vaccine and assured that 937 million pesos were allocated by the federal government.

Patria, without verifying effectiveness against XBB.1.16 and EG.5.1 “Eris”

The subvariants XBB.1.16 and EG.5.1 “Eris” were the ones that spread the most speed and dominated the cases during the last wave of infections of Covid-19 in Mexico, according to WHO data.

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Thus, THE UNIVERSAL consulted Conahcyt about the effectiveness of the Patria vaccine to protect against these virus mutations; However, the agency does not have the Clinical studies that endorse the president’s statements Lopez Obrador and the director Álvarez-Buylla.

In the case of highlights of the coronavirus variant ómicron XBB.1.16, the WHO classified it as fast growing and a new variant of concern, after stating that it surpassed the XBB.1.5 variant, previously the main one in many regions.

On the other hand, on September 26, the platform GISAID (Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) indicated that EG.5.1 “Eris” is propagated throughout the country, and became the dominant variant of Covid-19.