The pharmaceutical company Lekhim plans to launch production of vaccines against COVID-19 in 2022, the press service of Kharkiv City Council reported.
“This is a very important project. We do not know what the situation will be in a month or two with a pandemic. And the fact that Kharkiv enterprise is going to produce a vaccine and invest about EUR 25-30 million in production is very good,” Ihor Terekhov said.
He also said that Kharkiv local authorities are now doing everything possible to prepare for a likely new wave of coronavirus: drugs, necessary medical equipment and oxygen stations are being purchased.
According to the information posted on the City Council’s website, the CoronaVac vaccine, created by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech, will be produced in Kharkiv. In 2021, Lekhim Group became the official supplier of this vaccine in Ukraine.
The decision to mix vaccines against COVID-19 will be made exclusively by the doctor who directs the person to vaccination, said Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin.
“The main recommendation was that, in fact, mixing of vaccines is allowed, but subject to the algorithm. Mixing one or another vaccine is not the choice of the patient, it is solely the decision of the doctor who directs for vaccination,” he said in an interview with the Ukrayinska Pravda publication.
According to Kuzin, the doctor can make such a decision only in a few cases: if after the first dose the patient had a severe adverse reaction; due to humanitarian problems. For example, if a person abroad received the first Moderna vaccination and, having returned to Ukraine, does not have the opportunity to be vaccinated with it for the second time.
The deputy minister added that it is possible to combine either mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer), or the first dose of AstraZeneca, and the second with mRNA vaccines. Mixing of other types of vaccines is not envisaged yet.
