Peru is conducting negotiations with 13 international laboratories simultaneously in order to secure access to future supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
It must be noted that the South American nation has signed non-binding agreements with 11 of them, Immunization Advisor at the
Health Ministry (Minsa) Carlos Castillo reported.
"Peru is open to all procurement possibilities, and we will move ahead with negotiations as pharmaceutical laboratories provide more updates on the progress made in developing their vaccines, mainly on their safety and effectiveness, as well as on the delivery schedule," Castillo stated.
In the ongoing negotiation process, the first step was the exchange of technical information —a stage that has seen 20 COVID-19 vaccine developers.
So far, he said, 13 of these developers have moved into the second stage, which includes the signing of confidentiality agreements (in which companies provide information on the results of their first clinical trials).
In the present stage, that of non-binding agreements, 10 laboratories are still in the process of negotiation and are already conducting large-scale clinical trials of their vaccines in humans (Phase 3). These 10 companies are:
Sinopharm,
Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna,
Pfizer, Sinovac, Gamaleya, Novavax, J&J, Covaxx and Arcturus, plus the COVAX Facility coalition.
To date, Peru has initiated the signing of binding agreements with the COVAX Facility coalition and Pfizer, which have provided more information and certainty about the conditions that will be available at the time of procurement.
(END) NDP/LIT/RMB
Published: 10/11/2020