Mexico interested in Phase 3 trials of Russian COVID-19 vaccine

Mexico’s government expressed Russia its interest in participating in Phase 3 of the vaccine against the new coronavirus known as “ Sputnik V ” and developed by the country ruled by Vladimir Putin.

Thus it was informed by Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón after saying he had a meeting with Russia’s ambassador Víctor K. Koronelli at the Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE).

“We talked about the Sputnik V vaccine. I expressed to him our interest in applying phase 3 in Mexico in order to have the vaccine as soon as possible,” he posted in his Twitter account.

Last Monday, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would be willing to be inoculated with the Russian vaccine against the new coronavirus should it be effective.

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“I would be the first to be inoculated because I care a lot, but we have to know well what’s going on, to ensure it is effective and that it is available to everyone,” said the president in his daily news conference.

The Mexican president also said he was in touch with Russian and Chinese authorities in case any of those countries develops an effective vaccine against the new disease.

Russia’s government will send Mexico 2,000 doses of its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 to conduct the large scale clinical trials in our country.

Marcelo Ebrard asserted Mexico will receive the doses next September.

“We have talked with them [the Russian] for some time and yesterday, they offered Mexico at least 2,000 doses of the vaccine for their protocol and to start testing in Mexico, which is good news,” said Ebrard in an interview.

He added that Mexico will participate in other clinical trials for China, the U.S., and France-England, in addition to Russia.

Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said his country had developed the first “efficient” vaccine against coronavirus .

Nevertheless, other countries were not as confident as Putin with the announcement. The German Health Minister, for instance, said “there are no known data about the quality, efficiency, and safety of the Russian vaccine .”

For its part, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it is “patiently” waiting to analyze the results of the clinical trials of the vaccine developed by Russia.

Likewise, the SRE said back then that it had asked Moscow for clinical information regarding the vaccine.

Moreover, the Mexican government informed last week that the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford against COVID-19 will be produced in the country to supply the Latin American region and that it could be available in Mexico by the first quarter of 2021.

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