Laura Poy Solano
Newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, April 20, 2022, p. 17
With an investment of 300 million pesos, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) and the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt) yesterday signed a framework agreement to promote clinical research that allows the development of new drugs and medical equipment, as well as how to advance in the knowledge of the main diseases that affect the Mexican population.
At a press conference to publicize the agreement, the heads of the IMSS, Zoé Robledo, and Elena Álvarez-Buylla, from Conacyt, reported that 28 projects are being developed, including the Patria vaccine, which is expected to be completed in a few months. phase 2 of its clinical study, after confirming that the vaccine project is safe.
Although “thousands of volunteer applications have been received, which are still being processed (…) and all the sentinel groups have been covered, which are integrated to corroborate the safety for all vaccine platforms, we hope that in a few months we will finish recruiting to the volunteers”, of which 400 are required, he explained.
The foregoing, he acknowledged, has been difficult, since the omicron variant and vaccination campaigns have increased the amount of antibodies in the population, since volunteers are required to have an antibody level of less than 1,200. He indicated that they have had to reject three out of four applicants.
