CanSino Bio Photo:VCG

Mexico will buy 35 million doses of Chinese pharmaceutical firm Cansino Biologics' COVID-19 vaccine, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced on Thursday, adding that the agreement has been signed on Wednesday. 

Cansino's vaccine started its Phase III trials in Mexico on November 6. Ebrard, who made the announcement on Twitter, had previously said Mexico aimed to ink the deal this week, Reuters reported.

The deal was discussed earlier in October. Cansino will supply 35 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico from the end of 2020 to the year of 2021 based on the agreement, the Global Times learned from Cansino.

The Mexican authority has also entered into a partnership with AstraZeneca PLC, Pfizer Inc, and the COVAX, which will enable a total number of 116 million local people to be vaccinated.

However, the vaccine candidate named Ad5-nCoV by Cansino is the only single-dose regime candidate among the ones that Mexican authority purchased, which means Cansino is capable of meeting the needs of 35 million Mexicans in regards to this collaboration.

Ad5-nCoV is built upon Cansino's adenovirus-based viral vector vaccine technology. It uses the replication-defective adenovirus type 5 as the vector to express the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, thus avoiding biosafety risks. The vaccine remains stable between 2C and 8C, making it easier for transportation and storage, according to Cansino's official statement.

The vaccine candidate reported positive results of the Phase I and II clinical studies in the Lancet. The data has demonstrated that a single-dose injection of the candidate can induce a balanced humoral and cellular immune response, with no severe side effects occurred among volunteers. 

In June, the candidate received the Military Specially-needed Drug Approval. In August, it became the first COVID-19 vaccine candidate in China to be patented.

Global Times