Covid-19: Mexico to join clinical trials of Russian vaccine

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Thursday said Mexico will take part in the clinical trials of Russian Covid-19 vaccine and it has been offered at least 2,000 doses of a Russian Covid-19 vaccine.

This is "very good news because once again we are gaining time," said Ebrard, reports Xinhua.

Ebrard and Russian Ambassador to Mexico Viktor Koronelli met on Wednesday to discuss Mexico's participation in testing the "Sputnik V" vaccine developed by Russia's Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

"It will arrive in Mexico to begin testing. I will announce the date very soon, but yesterday both the offer and the acceptance were formalized," Ebrard said.

Mexico has agreed to help produce a Covid-19 vaccine for Latin America developed by Britain's Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, said Ebrard.

Phase three trials of a vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson are likely to begin in September, he added.

Mexico has registered more than 537,000 Covid-19 cases with over 58,000 deaths, according to Mexican health authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the world's first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Sputnik V, which is named after the space satellite launched by Moscow in 1957, reports Xinhua.

The vaccine was created by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, a medical institute located near Moscow.