The agreement between the Chinese pharmaceutical company Cansino Biologics and Richmond Laboratories can “turn Argentina into a center that supplies the entire region” with different vaccines that will begin to be produced from 2023 in a new biotechnology plant that will be inaugurated in the coming months in the Buenos Aires town of Pilar, with an investment of $85 million.
This was stated to Télam by the manager of Latin American Business Alliances at Cansino, Mariana Durán, who stressed that “the expectation of the agreement is to generate an alliance between companies to locate high-tech vaccines that are effective and affordable and thus convert Argentina into a center that supplies the entire region”.
“Our expectation is to expand the range of products that we provide to patients,” Richmond’s executive director, Juan Manuel Artola, told this agency.
He explained that “after the pandemic, the world began to demand more vaccines“, and considered that “the technology transfer agreement that we signed with CanSino Biologics opens a path for us in this scenario”.
“At first we will start with the Covid vaccine and then we will incorporate others that use adenovirus, recombinant proteins, mRNA, and conjugates,” Artola said.
“At first we will start with the Covid vaccine and then we will incorporate others that use adenovirus, recombinant proteins, mRNA, and conjugates”Juan Manuel Artola
The Cansino executive, for her part, stressed that the agreement is “in a preliminary stage”, although she stated that it will “progress progressively, initially with distribution and then with the technology transfer process for filling and finished the Convidecia vaccine for Covid-19”.
“Later, in the future, we will work on the production process of certain selected vaccines that will be produced in the country and then exported to neighboring countries,” Durán added.
New plant
While Artola indicated that “in a first stage, the technology transfer of the vaccine against Covid-19, Convidecia, will begin for the preparation of the complete cycle in 2023 at the new Pilar plant.”
“Until then, we will have a support agreement to carry out the manufacturing process of the finished product and meet the needs of the market,” said the CEO of Richmond, who stressed that “production will be carried out at the Pilar biotechnology plant, which It will be inaugurated in the coming months.
In this regard, he indicated that “it is a state-of-the-art plant with ample production capacity, for which we will be able to respond to the demand that arises,” and added that this will require “investments focused on research, development, and human resources.”
In addition, he stressed that “this agreement will promote the development of Argentine scientific knowledge and will create 120 direct jobs.”
Artola said that “in the first instance, supplying the local market will be prioritized and then we will move on to the region.”
“Once we obtain the authorization to produce in Argentina, we will begin the authorization process in Latin America. This will depend on the time of each of the regulatory authorities in each country and the need of the governments or markets to acquire the vaccine,” he pointed out. the executive.
first vaccine
The first vaccine to be produced in the new plant, Convidecia, was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), and its efficacy was evaluated in studies carried out in different countries, including Argentina, as well as the results of the main study were published in the specialized journal The Lancet.
In December of last year, Richmond laid the foundation stone for the new plant, based on the VIDA Project, which will allow the pharmaceutical company to produce up to 200 million vaccines per year against Covid-19.
Prior to this, in July, the company chaired by Marcelo Figueiras launched the Project VIDA Financial Trust (Proyecto de Inmunización para el Desarrollo Argentino), after the approval obtained from the National Securities Commission (CNV), through which it raised US$ 85 million to finance the construction of the state-of-the-art biotechnology plant, which It will enable the comprehensive production of vaccines to combat Covid-19 and other types of biotechnological therapies.
The financial trust was the first qualified as a Sustainable Bond (project with a positive environmental and social impact), with a life of 20 years in which the investors will be partners of Richmond in the production, marketing and export of the vaccines, with the purpose of that the entire country can access new treatments in the medium term.
