SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia—Colombia’s President Ivan Duque said on Dec. 16 his country will begin producing vaccines for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus in 2022. The announcement came after Colombian and Canadian research companies reached a partnership agreement. In a press release, Duque said, “Providence Therapeutics hopes to have, from February, clinical tests of the development of its vaccines against different variants of COVID-19.” The president said this would allow Colombia to supply vaccines for itself and, possibly, Latin America. A plant for manufacturing vaccines is being built in the town of Rionegro, which is near Medellin in Antioquia department. Local vaccine research and development group Vax Thera will be working with Canadian Providence Therapeutics, which specializes in messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine therapies. While researchers have been studying the possible medical applications of mRNA, especially in the area of vaccines, since the 1970s, approval for commercial production only began during the CCP virus pandemic. At present, both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna use mRNA …