Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile: Sinovac will install a vaccine plant in RM and an R&D center in Antofagasta

Executives and scientists from the Chinese Sinovac laboratory reported that they will build a plant in Chile for the “filling and finishing” of the CoronaVac vaccine process. In addition, they will install an R&D research center in Antofagasta.

The information was released by Weining Meng, vice president of Sinovac , at a press point held on the esplanade in front of the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center located on the San Joaquín campus . Members of the Chinese laboratory, the rector Ignacio Sánchez, UC authorities, directors of the Millennium Institute in Immunology and Immunotherapy (IMII) , and the ministers of Health, Science, National Assets and Economy participated in it.


The information was released by Weining Meng, vice president of Sinovac, at a press point held on the esplanade in front of the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center located on the San Joaquín campus.
The official installation in Chile of the Sinovac laboratory is the result of an old academic relationship with UC, thanks to which Chile was able to buy a large number of vaccines and achieve high rates of vaccination of its population to date. Together they have developed clinical studies on the CoronaVac vaccine.

Sinovac will invest 60 million dollars, financing that will allow it to continue researching in three ways: establishing a plant for the development of vaccines in the Metropolitan Region, installing an R&D research center in Antofagasta and locating offices for scientists at the UC Anacleto Innovation Center. Angelini.

The rector Ignacio Sánchez pointed out: “One of the most outstanding aspects of the information that the vice president of Sinovac gave us is the fact that his laboratory comes to Chile to make it the main vaccine production center for Latin America. We are going to have a development that will allow us to employ scientists, professionals and many people because it is a chain that involves the production of different instruments. Sinovac was even in contact with some regional governors, so it does not rule out the possibility of growing in other regions. “

“One of the most outstanding aspects of the information that the vice president of Sinovac gave us is the fact that his laboratory comes to Chile so that this is the main vaccine production center for Latin America” ​​- rector Ignacio Sánchez.

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“ It is important to highlight the benefit that at the country level would mean having a vaccine manufacturing plant , which will not only allow us to have more expeditious access to the vaccines produced in this plant, but will also generate an important transfer of research knowledge and technology that will contribute to the development of our country ”, expressed Alexis Kalergis, director of the Millennium Institute in Immunology and Immunotherapy (IMII) and academic of the Faculties of Biological Sciences .

“At UC we hope to continue developing activities with Sinovac in the field of scientific collaboration, for the execution of scientific-clinical studies and we hope that it can be expanded to processes such as the manufacture of vaccines and new therapies, which in turn generate more joint research and development with our country, through the exchange of knowledge and Chilean and Chinese researchers ” Kalergis stressed.


Rector Sánchez indicated: “We are going to have a development that will allow us to employ scientists, professionals and many people because it is a chain that involves the production of different instruments.”
Development Center for Latin America
“ Today is a very happy day, very important for Chile, because the return to national vaccine production is announced . Chile lost the possibility of manufacturing vaccines 18 or 19 years ago. Here, public-private-university work is combined ”, declared the Minister of Health , Enrique Paris .

“I say that today is a happy day for Chile, but not only for Chile, because once the factory produces vaccines it can be exported to Latin America. For those countries that have had difficulties in receiving vaccines, we want to help them, here there is also a very important concept of solidarity, of friendship at the Latin American level, of collaboration with our brothers, and obviously, of advancing in the fight against the pandemic.Chile has high-level scientists and that must be recognized and disseminated. I believe that this wonderful day, this day of happiness for us, supports what the country has done from a scientific point of view ”, stressed Paris.

“At UC we hope to continue developing activities with Sinovac in the field of scientific collaboration, for the execution of scientific-clinical studies and we hope that it can expand to processes such as the manufacture of vaccines and new therapies” – Alexis Kalergis, director of the Millennium Institute in Immunology and Immunotherapy (IMII)

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Support for Latin America will be boosted by the scientific work to be carried out from the UC Anacleto Angelini Innovation Center . “ It will be the base of operations for Sinovac researchers and scientists to continue with vaccine studies, as well as the design and planning of the plant installation . Together with them, we will develop tasks in the field of scientific collaboration, as we have done so far, that are related to the results of the scientific-clinical studies in adults currently underway and the design and implementation of the pediatric scientific-clinical study, among others. ”Said Professor Kalergis.

In the plant that will be installed in the Metropolitan Region, whose location is still being defined, priority will be given to the manufacture of vaccines for the coronavirus. For this reason, the “fill and finish” process of the CoronaVac vaccine will be performed initially. Later, in that facility it will also be possible to work on other vaccines such as hepatitis and influenza, to name a few.

The R&D development center for the Antofagasta region will be built on land that the Ministry of National Assets has provided as a loan . In it, emphasis will be placed on earlier stages of vaccine development, that is, on the production of vaccines from the beginning and, for example, to face variants that are presented in Chile.

“This is a very important day for science in our country and also for economic development. The possibility of accessing vaccines is something crucial at this time, and it will be a contribution of great importance for Latin America to be able to supply vaccines from Chile ”, reflected the rector Ignacio Sánchez.