Colombia to produce vaccines for first time in 20 years

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Colombia will produce vaccines for the first time in 20 years, President Iván Duque announced on Thursday after signing a memorandum of understanding with private companies VaxThera and Providence Therapeutics.

With this alliance, the Colombian company VaxThera, owned by Grupo Sura, will start in February the construction of a vaccine production plant in Antioquia, in the northwest of the country, with the capacity to produce up to 100 million doses per year.

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According to the schedule, the first batches of vaccines will be “small”, said the president, and would be available in June.

Duque said that Canada’s Providence is researching cancer treatments and different variants of COVID-19, including omicron, which has not yet been registered in Colombia.

“We are very grateful to receive the support of Colombia’s great scientists and research talent, which will allow us to move forward in testing new and better vaccines against COVID-19 and other diseases,” said Bradley Thomas, president, and CEO of Providence Therapeutics, at an official ceremony at Colombia’s presidential palace.

The COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccine is currently in Phase II human clinical trials, according to information provided by Providence on its official website.

During the pandemic, Colombia has sought alliances to facilitate foreign companies to produce vaccines in its territory as part of a “health security strategy” which, according to the Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz, will allow the country to face both COVID-19 and another eventual pandemic by having local production.

President Duque hopes that the production of vaccines in Colombia can be offered in the future to other Latin American countries.

“With the new technologies that will be brought to Colombia, we will be at the forefront of vaccine production, such as mRNA (messenger RNA),” said VaxThera’s president, Jorge Emilio Osorio.