The virus is being attacked
Russia has launched the production of flu vaccines in Nicaragua
Marina Gusenko, Rossiyskaya Gazeta
The Russian flu vaccine will be produced in Nicaragua. A joint Russian-Nicaraguan enterprise, the Mechnikov Institute, has been launched in Managua, the capital of this country, which has started producing flu vaccines.
According to the Deputy Minister of Health of Russia Sergey Kraevoy, the production of influenza vaccines with strains relevant for this year, provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), is now beginning. As Sergey Kraevoy explained, the plant is capable of producing 300 thousand doses of vaccine per day. But the flu is a seasonal disease, and a vaccine against it is needed two or three months a year. During this time, the plant can produce up to 30 million doses.
But the rest of the time the company will not be idle, the deputy minister believes. "We are thinking about expanding the range of medicines needed by the people of Nicaragua, Central and Latin America," he said. There is already a high readiness for the production of four more drugs relevant to the region – one diagnostic, one recombinant and two more vaccines, but their names have not yet been disclosed. In the future, the production line of the plant will expand.
As the head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency Vladimir Uiba noted, an agreement has also been reached with the leading institutes of India on the production of drugs and vaccines developed by them at the Nicaragua plant. "Both domestic and imported drugs will be produced at the site. You can't invent everything yourself, it's important to pick up and develop advanced technologies in time," he said.
Sergey Kraevoy clarified that the starting batch of flu vaccines will be one million doses. 400 thousand of them will be purchased by Nicaragua, 600 thousand by Cuba.
"We are working with the Pan American Health Organization to expand the geography of countries that will purchase our vaccine. It is of high quality, meets all international requirements and is very competitive in price," the Deputy Minister continued.
The Mechnikov Institute is a joint–stock company, two–thirds of whose shares belong to Russia and one-third to Nicaragua. State investments in its construction and equipment amounted to $ 33.5 million (more than $ 18 million was spent on equipment alone), 34 percent of this amount was spent by the Nicaraguan side. The enterprise will pay off in about 10 years, Sergey Kraevoy believes. This is Russia's first experience, and if it is recognized as successful, it will be replicated, he added.
The plant was created in record time. In 2013, the idea of the company arose, and in 2014, an agreement with Nicaragua was signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. While the plant was under construction, 120 people were trained to work on it. All operators working at the plant are highly qualified specialists – citizens of Nicaragua. Now the plant has already passed the final audit of specialists of the Cuban regulatory authority CESMED for compliance with GMP requirements and standards and has received permission to produce antiviral vaccines. The Mechnikov Institute is the only biotechnological enterprise in Central America built in accordance with the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO).
For Latin American countries, the production of influenza vaccine is extremely important. The shortage of influenza vaccine in this region now amounts to 100 million doses per year, and taking into account plans to increase the level of immunization of the population against influenza to 30 percent by 2022, the deficit will only grow.
According to WHO, influenza and pneumonia account for 4.6 percent of all deaths in Nicaragua, 8.12 percent in Brazil, 4.2 percent in Colombia, 3.97 percent in Mexico, and 7.14 percent in Cuba.
The volume of the pharmaceutical and immunobiological drugs market in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) today exceeds 96 billion dollars. In total, the combined market of these countries, with a population of over 600 million people, accounts for about 8 percent of the global pharmaceutical market. The growth dynamics is about 12 percent annually.
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