- AMLO made it clear that he did not want to be left behind in the global race for immunization.
- The initial objective was for Patria to be ready by the end of 2021 and for Mexico to become the second country in Latin America, after Cuba, to develop its own vaccine.
- But the year is over and Patria is still a project.
Shortly after vaccination against covid-19 began in Mexico in late 2020, AMLO made it clear that he did not want to be left behind in the global race for immunization and announced that it would manufacture its own biologic.
“Homeland” was the name chosen for the vaccine by the president himself, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in reference to the famous work of the poet Ramón López Velarde. His wish was not to depend on other countries or external companies to protect the population.
“A vaccine with that name means that we must always think about being independent,” he said last April.
The initial goal was for Patria to be ready by the end of 2021
The initial objective was for Patria to be ready by the end of 2021 and for Mexico to become the second country in Latin America, after Cuba, to develop its own vaccine. But the year is over and Patria is still a project.
However, in April 2021, the director of the Science and Technology Council (Conacyt), Maria Elena Alvarez-Buylladeclared that after passing the preclinical studies in mice and pigs they would start the tests in humans.
“If everything goes as expected, we would have a Mexican vaccine by the end of this year,” he declared.
At that time, officials made optimistic calculations about savings of more than 800% with respect to purchases of doses abroad and there was even talk of export plans.
However, a year after these enthusiastic declarations, the Patria vaccine project is still parked in phase 2waiting to gather volunteers with the necessary requirements to advance in clinical trials that allow it to continue to the next stage and thus obtain authorization from the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) for its massive application.
“Only if she were a witch” would she know when the Homeland vaccine will be available to the public, said the director of Conacyt.
There is “a delay in time and an adjustment” in the Patria vaccine
explaining that there is “a delay in time and an adjustment” to the initial project to have a Mexican vaccine against Covid-19, the also researcher said that once the immunization of the population over 18 years of age in Mexico advanced scientists have a hard time finding people with low levels of antibodies.
Despite this, he described the process “goes very well” because that proposal turned out to be an umbrella of support for other vaccine projects such as the one at UNAM and another at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí. Besides that it has allowed to recover “the dismantling” of Mexican institutions in the field of science.
“Homeland is the recovery of scientific sovereignty, in a strategic area,” he said.
How much has been invested so far in this project?
The government of Mexico has invested a total of 199 million pesos (US$9.8 million). The investment prospects for 2022 depend on the adjustment of the tests that will be carried out.