The installation of new plants for the manufacture of vaccines against COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries is projected as the new challenge for the pharmaceutical industry and governments to face the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far nations like Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia have revealed that they have signed agreements to soon establish plants for the manufacture of the preparations and thus join the more than 70 countries that, in almost 90 production plants, manufacture them every day and among those that at a continental level include the United States, Argentina and Brazil, who already had the technology since before.
Sinovac plant in Ecuador in 2024
In Ecuador, the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac has already established a clear roadmap with the Government on the actions to be taken within this cooperation process and presented a tentative calendar of scheduled activities until 2032. In approximately a year and a half the vaccine factory would be installed and in about two years local production would begin.
The Minister of Health, Ximena Garzón, announced that will be produced vaccines against COVID-19, that could be against the omicron variant, and also vaccines against chickenpox, polio and pentavalent.
The initial investment would be about $50 million for a first phase, according to JackTang, COO for Latin America of the company, and estimated that the project will open between 100 and 200 jobs.
No decision yet on the specific site for the installation, although Tang mentioned that there is a preference for a place close to the Quito airport.
Chile would start production from April
On the other hand, in Chile the process is more advanced. Construction of a vaccine filling and packaging plant began in late 2021 in the Metropolitan Region and is expected to start operating in April.
In addition to the plant, the pharmaceutical company will install an R&D research center in Antofagasta and other offices for scientists at a university. The investment is estimated at about $60 million.
Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac approves vaccine plant project in Ecuador
The Ph. D. in Pharmacology and university professor Enrique Terán says that in the case of Ecuador it is still necessary to know in depth the details of the agreement with the company, dedicated to the manufacture of “classic” vaccines, that is, with live attenuated viruses or inactivated viruses.
Terán also refers that it is still necessary to establish the benefits that it will bring and that “there is talk of a tripartite agreement: Government, Sinovac and private company.”
“There is not, at least publicly, a statement regarding the destination of the production. In other words, are we going to have greater access? Better prices? Priority or advantages in relation to other countries in the region?” he points out.
However, at the same time, it considers that the construction of a vaccine plant in countries like Ecuador can be positive, both from a financial and scientific-technological point of view, but that At the same time, it can represent great challenges such as “the lack of sufficiently trained human talent, technology transfer and financial aspects such as tax agreements.”
“Perhaps the most important question is: is it going to be an industrial complex located in Ecuador or is it going to be an industry to develop Ecuador,” says Terán.
Carlos Pesantes, a pharmaceutical chemist, comments that although having a vaccine plant will imply an economic contribution for the jobs it will provide It is not a sign that the country is going to advance in pharmaceutical research or education.
“If the Government invested more in research and education in the pharmaceutical area, we would not need the incorporation of large industries that seek to expand with a political, social and economic purpose, in short for their own interests… the big industries are making a commercial pact to establish themselves in a developing nation and increase their production and profits”, he questions.
Africa will produce mRNA vaccines
On the other hand, in the case of the African countries, these were selected to establish as of this March centers for the production of mRNA technology vaccines on this continent with limited access to injections. That technology is used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
With this initiative, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks to ensure that the continent can supply itself with vaccines to fight the pandemic or other future diseases. Currently, only 1% of the vaccines used in Africa are produced on the same continent of 1.3 billion people.
Last year, the WHO set up a messenger RNA technology center in South Africa to support vaccine production in low- and middle-income countries and ensure they have access to knowledge about this technique.
More than 10.4 billion vaccines against COVID-19 have already been administered in the world, with almost 62% of the population receiving at least one dose. But in Africa, only about 12% of the population is immunized.
Kate Stegeman, Advocacy Coordinator for the Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign for Africa, believes that “diversifying mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity to low- and middle-income countries should be a global health priority.”
He mentions that a greater number of regions producing mRNA vaccines could strengthen the response not only to COVID-19 and future infectious diseases, but also potentially to existing ones such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
At the moment, vaccine manufacturers around the world are producing some 1.5 billion doses a month, and this capacity is expected to continue to grow. It is estimated that by June the total production of vaccines will reach 24,000 million, exceeding world demand, according to data from the Business Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry of Spain.
The entity says that the global production capacity for all types of vaccines was just over 4,000 million doses a year before the pandemic and that it has tripled in this time.
Terán emphasizes that the manufacture of vaccines requires permanent controls that are carried out throughout the production chain.
Having a pharmaceutical background is necessary
“For some vaccines, more than 50 analyzes are carried out during their manufacture. The objective of these controls is to demonstrate that each new step in the process faithfully reproduces the same results as the batch that was used for the registration of the vaccine”, he says.
Pesantes agrees and reports that every vaccine plant must meet the highest quality standards and that in Ecuador, the National Agency for Sanitary Regulation, Control and Surveillance (Arcsa) must at the time be aware of everything that must be met.
In turn, both experts agree that Ecuador is a country without a pharmaceutical trajectory.
“This is key to understanding that it cannot be a supplier to other markets from one moment to the next,” says Terán and mentions that questions arise as if the volume of production is going to be enough to lower costs or whether the plant will be able to compete with India, South Korea or even China.
Pesantes, for his part, says that in Ecuador the factors that allow the expansion of the industry are not available as in developed countries and stresses that there is “scant research, lack of development in the chemical/pharmaceutical industry, behavior of the market over the national against the international and the commercial hierarchy”.
So far there are nine vaccines against COVID-19 approved in the world (Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, in its two versions, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Covaxin and Covavax), but research on new vaccines continues and there are currently another 114 in clinical trials, of which 23 are already in last phase. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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