September 10, 2020
Once vaccines are certified by the World Health Organization, Venezuela will produce and distribute those anti-COVID-19 vaccines produced by international scientific centers.
“Venezuela has its facilities for vaccine production, and we have the capacity to produce the vaccine in coordination of Russia, China, Cuba and the whole world,” stated Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
He called for an expansion of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, “so that Venezuela will have adequate capacity entirely to produce the vaccine.”
On this subject, Carlos Alvarado, the Health Minister emphasized the possibilities of the Espromed BIO Company being able to make the Russian vaccine Sputnik V that is showing great promise in human trials. “This manufacturing plant is being readied for us to enter into joint production with Russia with the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus,” he indicated. Alvarado explained that in the immediate future Venezuela will be included in the phase III clinical trials of the vaccine, once a confidentiality agreement is confirmed and the results of the previous stages of the trials have been analyzed. “We will work with technological transfer for the possible development of a vaccine in our country, “he added.
Espromed BIO has a productive capacity of 120 million vaccine doses per year. This year, up to the current date, the main plant in the Capital District produced 18 million ampules of vaccines utilized in the Venezuelan National Vaccine Campaign.
In addition, the Health Minister offered a positive evaluation of the plans of Mexico and Argentina for establishing an agreement to make the Russian vaccine for Latin America, especially given the stopping of the clinical trials of Oxford University and Astra-Zeneca’s vaccine projects; an agreement had previously been signed with them in early August.
Source: Ministry of Poder Popular of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau