Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro approved the bill that authorizes Brazil to join the COVAX Facility, the World Health Organization (WHO) global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries. The law came into force on Tuesday 2nd.
With the measure, the Federal Government informed that it will allocate BRL 2.5 billion for the acquisition of vaccines against COVID-19. According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil will receive 42 million doses via COVAX.
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Despite having approved the bill, President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed the rule that determined a period of five days for Brazilian regulator Anvisa to approve the emergency use of any vaccine already authorized by foreign regulators.
According to the Federal Government, the rule was vetoed because it violated the president’s competence and also hindered technical analysis on the vaccine’s safety, quality and efficacy by Anvisa.
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Currently, Anvisa takes 10 days to evaluate the emergency use of an immunizer. So far, Anvisa has granted definitive registration only for the Pfizer vaccine; Coronavac and AstraZeneca are only authorized for emergency use.
