The president of Panama Laurentino Cortizo reported that the Cabinet Council approved this Thursday $48 million dollars for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19 from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
As Cortizo explained, with these funds they seek to acquire 4 million
vaccines to apply to two million people, since two doses per person will be necessary.
The pharmaceutical company
Pfizer and its partner, the German laboratory
BioNTech, announced on November 9 that the
vaccine they are developing is 90% effective, according to the results of their phase 3 study, which is the last stage before formally requesting its approval.
Although
Pfizer and
BioNTech were the first to present results from phase 3 studies, there are currently nine other
vaccine projects at this same stage.
The president's statements were made in the province of Chiriquí, in the middle of a meeting he held with agricultural producers at the Cold Chain Postharvest Center, in Volcán.
It should be noted that several people in Panama have already received the
vaccine from the German company CureVac against
COVID-19 , which is developing a phase 2 study in this country corresponding to trials to prove efficacy.
Panama, at the same time as Peru , began on September 30, the phase 2 clinical trial of CureVac's CVnCoV
vaccine against
COVID-19 , with 250 volunteers.