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Short abstract:

The paper deals with the Latin America and Caribbean states’ efforts to achieve greater coordination and, building on the experiences of Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico (which have developed their own vaccines), strengthen the region’s capacities to develop and produce its own pandemic vaccines.

Long abstract:

From the early 1900´s, public vaccine manufacturing laboratories in several Latin American and Caribbean countries produced the vaccines their national vaccination programs required. From the 1970’s, the development of more complex vaccines meant that public vaccine laboratories needed to undergo dramatic changes. With this in mind, in the early 1990s, the PAHO led the initiative to create a Regional System for Vaccines in Latin America and the Caribbean. The planned network of member institutions would implement a comprehensive approach covering all stages of vaccine development, production, quality control, and evaluation. However, lack of funding impacted on the initial motivations of collaboration. Only in Brazil, and Mexico, were the necessary political and financial commitments made. The PAHO and WHO considered supporting both public and private vaccine development and production institutions, but, at that time, state vaccine production was being abandoned, so, eventually private industry prevailed and SIREVA disappeared. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the region’s limited vaccine production capacity and demonstrated the weaknesses of its health systems. With the aim of reducing dependence on the outside world in the health sector, in 2021 the 33 members of the Community of Latin America and Caribbean states approved the guidelines of a health self-sufficiency plan for the region. The aim is that the countries in the region achieve greater coordination to end the pandemic and, building on the experiences of Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico, (which have developed their own vaccines), strengthen the region’s capacities to develop and produce its own pandemic vaccines.