Vaccine market and production capabilities in the Americas

Abstract

In the Americas, The United States of America, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil are the top vaccine producers and the countries with the leading infrastructure for biological manufacturing. The North American countries have the most demanding legislation regulating and controlling these pharmaceuticals’ distribution and production. Some Latin American countries rank in the top 20 of worldwide vaccine manufacturers, with Cuba, Brazil, México and Colombia have a self-sufficient vaccine production of 72.7%, 54,2%; 25%; and 7.7%, respectively, of the national vaccine demand. On the other hand, the rest of Latin American countries cannot satisfy their demand for vaccines, and most of their efforts are associated with the distribution within their health systems rather than in transferring technology.Based on this literature review, the results suggest an increasing growth vaccine demand, not only for their growing populations and previously established demand but also for the recently exerted pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Because the American continent has a marked inequality between the hegemonic producers of vaccines, the exporters, and those that depend heavily on importing these products, this could assert technological dependence in countries with rapid population growth and jeopardize the effectiveness of the two vaccination plans.

Advances and Challenges in COVID-19 Vaccination in Latin American: A public health perspective

“…That led to an inequality in the acquisition of vaccines, since by August 24, 2020, before the reports on vaccines safety and effectiveness, these countries had already purchased 2000 million doses of vaccine 16 . Meanwhile, middle and low-income countries, such as those in Latin America, had to make a competitive purchase, where the first million doses were already destined for richer countries 16,19 .…”

“…A final point concerning vaccine procurement in Latin American countries is that countries such as Mexico, Cuba, and Brazil have advanced avidly developing their vaccine despite limited local vaccine production capacity 19 . Likewise, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru are also facing the challenge of manufacturing their vaccine with limited progress 22 .…”

SARS‑CoV‑2 spike protein‑induced host inflammatory response signature in human corneal epithelial cells

“…The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for COVID-19, has potentially severe adverse health effects, such as acute respiratory distress syndrome, difficult-to-correct metabolic acidosis and coagulation dysfunction (3,4). Although several SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have been developed, due to the increasing demand for vaccines, insufficient vaccine production (5), rapid virus mutation (6) and other reasons, SARS-CoV-2 is still endangering human health. The current public health emergency is similar to the SARS outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV in 2002-2003 (7).…”

Participación latinoamericana en la producción científica de vacunas frente al COVID-19

“…Asimismo, en el continente americano se encuentran marcadas diferencias en comparación con países como Canadá y Estados Unidos los cuales son líderes en investigación, producción y exportación de vacunas; otros países con economías emergentes como Brasil, México o Argentina tienen capacidades locales instaladas y producen las vacunas que tanto necesitan para satisfacer sus necesidades. Por otro lado, la mayoría de países de la región no comienzan con la bioindustrialización y tienen poca capacidad de fabricación o pocas estrategias para independizarse en la dependencia de la biotecnología 6 .…”