Key ingredient for 2 million Chinese vaccine doses reaches Mexico

MEXICO CITY: Mexico has received the active ingredient for 2 million doses of China's CanSino COVID-19 vaccine, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday, thanking the Chinese government.

Mexico said on Wednesday its health regulator had approved the vaccines by CanSino Biologics Inc and Sinovac Biotech Ltd, both from China, as it seeks to ramp up its vaccination efforts after a slow start amid global shipment delays and shortages.

Ebrard said the active ingredient of the CanSino vaccine that arrived would be packaged in Mexico, and acknowledged Beijing's support in a statement on Twitter.

"Our gratitude always," he wrote.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said Mexico is expecting 6 million doses of CanSino's vaccine this month, with more expected in March.

Martha Delgado, a deputy foreign minister, shared a video on Twitter earlier on Thursday showing shipments of what she said were doses of CanSino's vaccine arriving at the airport, saying they would be packaged in the state of Queretaro in central Mexico.

Mexico is one of several countries looking to China to source vaccines. It was one of the host countries for CanSino's phase 3 trials. The company is also running trials in Argentina, Chile and Russia, trial data showed.

Pakistan said earlier this week that CanSino's vaccine showed 65.7% efficacy in preventing symptomatic cases and a 90.98% success rate in stopping severe disease, according to an interim analysis of global trials.