The good news is that Panama has been selected to do at least two research studies with vaccines that come in phase 2 and the advantage of that is that first, we are going to be able to demonstrate that these vaccines are safe and effective in our population. Secondly, if we do a good phase 2 study, we could quickly have access to phase 3 studies in September, October or November, and this implies that we could be vaccinating thousands of Panamanians, especially in the areas where there are many cases and favorably impact the pandemic, that is really very good news for the country, said Sáez-Llorens in the Radio program broadcasted by ECO TV and RPC Radio.

On the other hand, he explained, that currently there are approximately 23 vaccines developed for COVID-19, and of this total 4 are in phase 3, of which two are Chinese, there is one from Oxford University that has an agreement with the company. AstraZeneca, and there is a United States vaccine from the Moderna company.

Given these advances, Sáez-Llorens believes that by the end of this year 2020 or the beginning of 2021, possibly countries, including Panama, may have access to these vaccines.

So we already have 4 vaccines in phase three, which implies that by October the world should probably already have results of efficacy of the vaccines, having the results then the regulatory bodies give the approval, the commercial license for the initial priority groups and large-scale production proceeds to be distributed not only in the United States or Europe, but throughout the world through agreements that have been made between the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Foundation Gates, the Global Vaccine Alliance and other philanthropic institutions and academic institutions, so it is very likely that our countries, including Panama, could have access to these vaccines at the end or beginning of next year, said the specialist.