RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A survey conducted by Quartz points out that Brazil is one of the countries with the largest numbers of reserved Covid-19 vaccine doses. There are currently 220 million in total, 120 million from China’s Sinovac, developed with the Butantan Institute, and 100 million from Oxford University, which has a partnership with AstraZeneca.
The Quartz count considers both licensed vaccine candidates for local production and those closed in a direct purchase agreement. The case of Brazil is the first option – and the country, in return, allows testing on national territory.
The United States comes first, with one billion reserved doses. Most of them – 600 million – are the result of an agreement between the country and Pfizer and BioNTech pharmaceuticals.
Right behind comes the Serum Institute, from India, which will receive one billion doses from the AstraZeneca candidate. The difference is that the agreement between them requires the Indian company to distribute the vaccine to poorer countries.
The European Union has reserved 500 million doses, the majority (300 million) from the French company Sanofi. The remaining 200 million are from Johnson & Johnson, which yesterday began human safety trials of its vaccine.
Outside the bloc, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy also have another agreement, and are shown just below the European Union on this Quartz list. The four countries have an additional 400 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine reserved.
Source: UOL