Mexico has received the first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate from Chinese pharmaceutical company CanSino Biologics Inc. for a late stage-trial on between 10,000 and 15,000 volunteers, foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Tuesday.
The country aims to vaccinate nearly all of its population against COVID-19 by the end of 2021 after reaching accords with pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organization-backed COVAX plan.
"On October 30, the first doses were received to carry out phase three of clinical trials of the candidate vaccine from Cansino Bio," Ebrard said at a news conference, adding that it would be one of the world's largest COVID-19 clinical trials.
(Reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez; Writing by Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
