COVID-19 vaccines land in Peru, hope is reborn

Photo: AFP

15:19 | Lima, Mar. 15.

The arrival in Peru of 300,000 vaccine doses from China's Sinopharm laboratory, on February 7, marked the beginning of the expected immunization process that will enable Peruvians to defeat the new coronavirus.

This first batch —which six days later was added to another 700,000 doses, thus reaching 1,000,000— arrived at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport on that Sunday night.

The cargo was carried by an Air France Boeing 777 that landed on Peruvian soil with the aforementioned vaccines following a stopover in Amsterdam (the Netherlands).

Since that date, a total of 1,217,000 vaccines have arrived in the South American country —including those sent by Sinopharm, the two shipments of 50,000 doses each purchased from Pfizer laboratory, and 117,500 from COVAX Facility (also Pfizer).

The Government's efforts enabled the Peruvian State to reach agreements that will allow a total of 48,251,000 to land in the country the current year. This figure is the outcome of contracts inked with companies: Sinopharm, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and the COVAX Facility mechanism.

Negotiations

Negotiations for the arrival of vaccines in Peru began in 2020 —during the administration of former President Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020)— in the midst of the pandemic that still harms the nation.

Despite the initial contacts, the acquisitions were only completed under the current administration of President Francisco Sagasti, with whom talks resumed and agreements were reached indeed.

Below is the timeline of the negotiation, purchase, and arrival of the vaccines produced by each of the contracted laboratories, as well as those obtained by the multilateral COVAX Facility.

Sinopharm

On June 22, 2020, a confidentiality agreement was signed between Sinopharm and Peru's Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH) that allows the exchange of information on clinical trials' phase 1 and 2 carried out by this laboratory on Peruvian soil.

On August 14, 2020, said laboratory signed an agreement with the UPCH to carry out phase 3 clinical trials in Peru, which began in September 2020 with 12,000 volunteers.

On January 6, 2021, the agreement with Sinopharm for the acquisition of 1,000,000 vaccines was signed.

Thus, the initial 300,000 doses were received on February 7, followed by 700,000 on February 13.

Currently, a purchase agreement is being negotiated that may lead to obtaining an additional 37,000,000 units.

Pfizer

On August 6, 2020, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) signed a confidentiality agreement with Pfizer pharmaceutical company.

On September 17, 2020, the same agency signed the binding specifications that established the conditions to conduct the negotiation.

On February 8, the agreement was signed for the supply of 20,000,000 doses during 2021. Therefore, the first batch of 50,310 doses arrived on March 3. Similar batches will land during the remaining weeks of March to total 250,380 doses.

In April, weekly batches will be received, which will lead to a total of 800,280 doses.

Between May and June, 4,699,890 doses will be received. In addition, 14,250,600 doses will arrive during the second half of this year to reach a total of 20,001,000 doses from this laboratory.