Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc (INO)

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Colombia will produce vaccines against covid-19 in association with the pharmaceutical company Inovio
This decision opens the way for the country to continue associating with more pharmaceutical companies and to have its own vaccines
October 20, 2021

The Colombian Minister of Health, Fernando Ruiz Gómez, speaks in an interview with Efe today, at the Colombian embassy in Washington (USA). EFE / Lenin Nolly
This October 20, it was known that Colombia signed a new memorandum of understanding, this time with the US pharmaceutical Inovio. At the signing ceremony held at Casa de Nariño, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz Gómez, indicated that for the portfolio and the sector, "it is a very special moment due to the possibility of signing this understanding agreement."

“Since the last week of July of this year, our first mission, to seek the issue of health security, was elected to the United States and we had the opportunity with Ambassador Pinzón to establish conversations with various pharmaceutical companies in the United States, with Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca ” , he said in his speech.

He pointed out that in those conversations the possibility of producing vaccines in Colombia was raised, which, since the instruction of the President of the Republic and Ministry of Health, has been working on.

We arrived a little disappointed because Latin America was not a priority for production and, unfortunately, we did not have a relationship with Inovio. We have Ambassador Goldberg to thank, his persistence and hard work has helped us a lot.
“Today it is special for us to have this complete circle of having the possibility, which was the first one we sought, to have interaction with a company in the United States, to integrate it with the work that has been carried out by the WHO with the Solidarity study, in which Inovio is like one of the four experiences of clinical studies that we will do ”, said the minister.

In addition, all the possibilities of advancing "very quickly, because the will of Inovio, which considers Colombia as a priority country, and also the will of our country and Minsalud to advance in everything that is the development of vaccines in Colombia" Ruiz said, recalling that health security is an objective and is expected to be realized from these agreements.

"We need to go up and grow more in vaccination speed": MinSalud
On the other hand, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz Gómez, presented an overview of the progress of vaccination against covid-19, highlighting the intensification days held during this week in different regions of the country.

Likewise, the minister assured that although vaccination has grown in recent weeks, with 250,000 and 300,000 daily doses applied, “we need to go up and grow even more at that speed. We need to vaccinate 7.5 million people for the first doses, ” said Ruiz Gómez.

On the other hand, the head of the health portfolio stressed that it has been observed that there is still a population of 70 and 80 years old and more who still do not receive their vaccines, which is risky, since it is the population group that is reporting the most deaths from covid today.

"In highly rural municipalities we still have very large populations that have not been vaccinated," said the minister, noting that efforts must be added to reach these populations with vaccines.

“We are doing well, but we need to meet the goal; therefore, we need to cover the Colombian population, protect it, it is our responsibility to move forward, "he added.

In the same sense of protecting the population, he pointed out that people over 70 who attend the vaccination points for their booster doses will not need scheduling. "Whoever arrives for their vaccination without being scheduled must be given the vaccine."

A concern raised by the minister has to do with pregnant women, noting that there is a record of 188 deaths and the covid became the leading cause of death for this group.

“It is very important that the health secretaries and the EPS follow up the doctors who do the prenatal control. I especially want to ask the EPS to carry out an analysis to see if they are effectively recommending their vaccination to pregnant women , " said the minister, emphasizing the need to protect this population group against covid-19.

Another task raised by the minister is to vaccinate migrants, both regular and irregular, without any type of barriers. "To vaccinate they do not need to be insured," he said, making it clear that there are more than a million migrants loaded in Mi Vacuna and those that are missing will be loaded according to the census of the territorial entities.

“I want to ask departments and cities that are lagging behind to make a very strong effort. We want the secretaries to appear and the IPS and EPS become aware of continuing in the vaccination process ”, concluded Ruiz Gómez.
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