- The immunizer is being developed by researcher Célio Lopes Silva;
- Earlier Friday, governor of São Paulo, João Doria, announced the first Brazilian-made COVID-19 vaccine.
Brazilian Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovations, Marcos Pontes announced on Friday that researchers financed with resources from the federal government have filed for Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa to carry out tests for another Brazilian-made vaccine against COVID-19, called Versamune-CoV-2F.
The immunizer is being developed by researcher Célio Lopes Silva, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, in partnership with the companies Farmacore Biotecnologia and PDS Biotechnology Corporation.
The request submitted on Thursday is to proceed with phases 1 and 2 of clinical trials. According to Marcos Pontes, at first there will be 360 volunteers.
Earlier Friday, governor of São Paulo, João Doria, announced that the Butantan Institute is developing a new all-national vaccine, ButanVac, and that Butantan Institute will request authorization from Anvisa for clinical trials.
Asked why the announcement by the federal government was on the same day as that made by the government of São Paulo, Pontes said it was a “coincidence”.
“It has nothing to do with each other. I was looking forward to announcing. I was going to do it as soon as they entered [with the order at Anvisa]. They started in February to present the documents to Anvisa. It is a coincidence that he [Governor João Doria] announced in São Paulo ”, said, as reported by Agência Brasil. Doria is a political rival of President Jair Bolsonaro.
In a quick interview, Marcos Pontes pointed out that the ministry has been funding the research since February last year, but that it had difficulties in obtaining new resources at the end of the year and in February. Now, Brazil’s government reallocated resources to the project coordinated by the professor.
