Seeking technology, manufacturing partnership with Indian pharma companies, says Mexico foreign secretary

Mexico is seeking investments and technological collaborations with Indian drug makers in a bid to bolster its pharmaceutical industry and reduce dependency on imports for critical drugs and vaccines.

“We learnt a lot during the pandemic. We realised that we can’t have dependency from companies in the developed world,” Mexico foreign secretary Marcelo Ebrard told ET.

Ebrard was in New Delhi to attend the G20 Ministerial Meeting.

“As a foreign minister, I have the mission to obtain vaccines (for my country). I called several very close countries. (They said) well let us finish our vaccination, then we will call you. That was the situation. The companies were increasing prices. We don’t want to forget these lessons,” Ebrard said.

The minister said “the only country that sent vaccines to Mexico in February 2021 was India, and you have an emergency here (at the same time). And quite the opposite behaviour from other countries”.

Ebrard listed critical life-saving drugs such as cancer medications, antiretrovirals and vaccines where Mexico is seeking India’s help.

The Mexican government has partnered with ImmunoAct, an IIT Bombay-incubated company which is developing cutting-edge chimeric antigen receptor – T cell (CAR -T), a gene therapy that has the potential to cure certain types of blood cancer.Ebrard said the pilot trials on five Mexican patients is expected to begin in December 2023 at the National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition, Mexico City.

Based on the success of the pilot study, Mexico will seek regulatory approval to do phase 2 trials on patients. ImmunoAct will do a technology transfer, and Mexico will build a facility to manufacture CAR-T therapy.

“We have thousands of people with leukaemia, especially at a higher rate among kids. Why so? It is difficult to say, but we need to do something,” Ebrard said.

“In the US, it (CAR-T therapy) costs half a million dollars. We chose India because Dr Rahul Purwar (founder of ImmunoAct) and his team want to guarantee the access of this technology, so that we can make the same thing in Mexico and offer this to thousands of patients,” Ebrard said.

During his India visit, Ebrard was leading a delegation that held meetings with vaccine makers Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Biological E on the possibilities of commercial supplies, joint development, technology transfer and manufacturing of vaccines.

Mexico’s state-owned firm Birmex also signed a strategic agreement with Indian drug maker Cipla for commercial supplies of oncology and antiretroviral (HIV-AIDS) medicines in the short term, as well as a technology transfer scheme to ensure that Birmex has the capacity to manufacture these products for national supply.

Mexican federal and state governments procure drugs and vaccines through tenders. Some Indian companies, including Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s, Aurobindo Pharma and Hetero, have manufacturing presence in Mexico due to its close proximity to the US market and also the free trade agreement it has with US and Canada.