- The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the main bet of the Brazilian government for immunization against the disease;
- In June, the Brazilian government signed a $127 million agreement to start production of the vaccine in the country, in partnership with the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz).
According to the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil‘s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) approved on Saturday (2) a request from Fiocruz for the exceptional import of 2 million ready-made doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical AstraZeneca.
The application of the immunizer, however, still depends on the registered or authorization for emergency use of the vaccine, which has not yet been requested by Fiocruz. The foundation has already said it intends to place the order by January 15.
READ ALSO: WHO approves emergency use of Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the main bet of the Brazilian government for immunization against the disease. In June, the Brazilian government signed a $127 million agreement to start production of the vaccine in the country, in partnership with the Osvaldo Cruz Foundation (FioCruz).
So far, tests also carried out in Brazil and other Latin American countries, have shown that the Oxford vaccine is less effective than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, but can be stored and transported under normal refrigeration.
CoronaVac
In addition to Oxford/AstraZeneca, China’s Sinovac, CoronaVac vaccine developer, has an agreement signed with the State of Sao Paulo and Butantan Institute. On December 22, Anvisa certified the production standards of the Chinese vaccine. Anvisa anticipated the certificate of good standards to Sinovac’s factory in China by 10 days.
Butantan Institute already received more than 5.5 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine.
READ ALSO: Brazil identifies two cases of the novel coronavirus variant identified in the UK
Sputnik V
On December 30, Anvisa received a request for phase 3 clinical trials for the Sputnik V vaccine, developed in Russia, in Brazil. The request was made by the União Química laboratory and must be answered within 72 hours. In phase 3, more extensive tests are carried out with humans. The step is mandatory to authorize the use of an immunizer.
In August, the state government of Paraná signed an agreement with Russia for technology transfer and production of the Sputnik V vaccine by the Paraná Institute of Technology (Tecpar). In September, the Paraná laboratory informed that it planned to start the tests in October. Now, the expectation is that this will only occur in February or March.
