The Expert's Opinion

An unprecedented pandemic, the scientific community increasing its efforts to develop vaccines to combat the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and the collaboration of governments and pharmaceutical companies to produce and distribute vaccines that will help the world population to survive the infection and to try stopping the spread of the virus. But what happens when a country does not have the capacity to develop or produce its own vaccines? That country becomes dependent on the availability and distribution of vaccines established by world health organizations and pharmaceutical companies.

But at what point did Mexico lose the ability to produce its own vaccines? Historically, the country produced biologicals that were essential for the eradication of smallpox in 1951, and the elimination of polio and diphtheria in the early 1990s. The advances in the development of biologicals and vaccines in Mexico gave rise to the establishment of the Biologicals and Reactives Laboratories of Mexico, S.A. de C.V. (BIRMEX) in 1999, which aimed to propose association schemes and strategic alliances between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies to produce and market biologicals and medical supplies for the benefit of Mexicans. But for different reasons, the country lost its self-sufficiency in the production of vaccines in the year 2000 and from that date, all vaccines are imported.

Even after the H1N1 influenza pandemic that appeared in 2009, where the first human case originated in Mexico, the country decided to face this global situation, with decisions and actions established in the National Pandemic Influenza Plan, which allowed the government and its secretary of health to control the first epidemic wave of the 21st century in the country. But this pandemic experience was not stimulating enough for Mexico to restart its ability to produce its own biologics and vaccines.

The COVID-19 pandemic finally demonstrated the great vulnerability to which the Mexican population is exposed by depending on foreign companies to obtain vaccines, which caused the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt) to invest in the development of vaccines in the national territory, resulting in the acquisition of the technology to evaluate in clinical studies the first national vaccine known as “Patria”. The financial investment that is being made to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this vaccine, with its subsequent possible approval and use in Mexicans, opens the possibility that, if this is successful, other vaccines can be tested and approved in Mexico.

But not only the acquisition of technology is the way to recover the autonomy in vaccines, but a space is also required where these vaccine platforms can be developed and because of this urgent need, in June 2022, the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and Conacyt inaugurated the first National Laboratory of Vaccinology and Tropical Viruses in the country. In addition, the IPN also recently announced the creation of the first postgraduate degree in Science and Technology of Vaccines and Biotherapeutics, which allows the training of specialized human resources in ​vaccines, while reestablishing the infrastructure to develop, evaluate and possibly approve future Mexican vaccines.

But like any national policy, there is a risk that, with a change of government, these efforts will be reversed, and this will result in a change in science and technology policy in the country, so it is important that the development of vaccines be consider it as a national security issue, which would allow continuity in the reactivation of this essential activity for national sovereignty.