Mexico: Moderna expects new covid-19 vaccine to be marketed by the end of the year

The vaccine against covid-19 updated from modern could be marketed in Mexico at the end of 2023, Rolando Pajón, medical director of the pharmaceutical company for Latin America.

“We would like to be able to be in Mexico before the end of the year with our already improved vaccine so that in Mexico we are not the last in the region to have access to the most updated vaccine we have against covid-19”Pajón said in an interview with EFE.

Just last September, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Moderna’s updated vaccine, which is effective against more contagious variants such as the omicron XBB.1.5, so According to Pajón, the process has also started to get it to Mexico.

“Earlier this week we completed that process (in Mexico). So we are very happy because that is the first step, it is like arriving and ringing the doorbell at home.”he pointed.

According to Pajón, clinical trials have confirmed that Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine increases neutralizing antibodies against the new circulating variants by 8.7 to 11 times.

The manager regretted that regulatory approval in Mexico has not yet been accelerated. “Our main enemy suddenly stops being the virus and suddenly stops being the disease as such because when you have a medicine in your hand that you know works, then your enemy is time,” he insisted.

But he highlighted how “great advance” that the Mexican Government has opened the door for private companies to sell vaccines against covid-19.

“We are ready to provide them because we think that the Mexican population deserves to have access to the best vaccine that currently exists on the market against the strains that are circulating at this time. “We are willing to supply them as soon as they are approved,” he emphasized.

Although the Government of Mexico did not purchase Moderna vaccines, the pharmaceutical company donated almost three million doses in January 2022 that served to protect a key population, such as teachers and people in vulnerable health conditions.

So far, the Mexican Government has said that it will use more than 9 million doses of the vaccines from Russia, Sputnik, and Cuba, Abdala, in its reinforcement strategy against covid-19, a vaccination campaign that begins this Monday.

According to the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, Mexico has more than 5.38 million committed doses of Abdala, in addition to the upcoming arrival of 4 million units of Sputnik.