French Big Pharma Sanofi, using its traditional vaccine approach, and Chinese biotech Walvax, using mRNA technology, are both set to start phase 3 trials in Mexico.
Sanofi, which has a deal with GlaxoSmithKline and uses a recombinant protein-based technology, is set to kick-start its late-stage effort soon after Mexico's health regulator Cofepris gave it the all-clear this week, according to Reuters.
So too will phase 3 trials begin from Walvax Biotechnology, which is using the same tech employed to good effect by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna, in a 6,000-person trial program.
There is also a third native shot in the mix. Mexico's own so-called Patria vaccine is looking to start midstage trials but could nab an emergency use stamp this year.
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This uses a third kind of technology, out from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and based on a HexaPro protein developed by the University of Texas at Austin.
Mexico has already seen more than 33 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and China’s Sinovac, but with a population nearing 130 million, will need to boost supply. Patria vaccine could do a lot of the heavy lifting in this regard, as well help other developing nations that have struggled to secure supplies.
The current wave of infections in the country is currently waning, though it was hit hard at the start of the start of the year and has so far seen more than 222,000 deaths and 2.4 million cases. These figures, though, could greatly underestimate the real case count and death toll.