RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The director of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, said yesterday that the institution expects to provide 45 million CoronaVac vaccine doses to the SUS (National Health System) by December this year.
The Butantan, a São Paulo state government institution, is developing and testing a vaccine against the coronavirus in partnership with Sinovac, a Chinese laboratory.
“We guarantee that in December we will have 45 million doses available for SUS,” said Dimas at a press conference of the João Doria government (PSDB), which also included the capital’s mayor Bruno Covas.
“We could increase this volume to 60 million in March and 100 million in May. We made this possible,” he added.
Dimas met two days ago with the interim Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, in Brasília. According to the director of the Butantan Institute, the supply of CoronaVac to SUS is now complete, the current discussion is merely on”formalizing” the distribution of these doses.
The meeting also discussed a request to the federal government for funds to expedite the process of testing the efficacy of CoronaVac and to invest in large-scale production by the Butantan Institute.
“It is R$85 million (US$17 million) to speed up the clinical trials and R$60 million for the plant’s restructuring process,” explained Dimas.
However, the institution’s goal is to obtain around R$2 billion in federal resources in total, which would guarantee the supply of 100 million doses for SUS by May.
“It is a point not yet defined. But I say that we would need about R$2 billion to complete the 100 million doses,” said Dimas, adding that there was a “clear signaling” and a “total understanding” by Pazuello about the request.
Flu vaccine for the W.H.O.
Dimas also reported that the Butantan Institute will be responsible for providing 550,000 doses of the common flu vaccine to Asian countries, in a deal closed on Thursday evening with the World Health Organization. It will be the first time that the São Paulo institution will supply immunizers abroad.
“This consolidates Butantan as the largest producer of vaccines in Brazil, the largest producer of flu vaccines in the southern hemisphere and, in the future, who knows, one of the largest producers of the Coronavac vaccine,” commented the institute’s director, saying it will provide 300,000 doses to Mongolia and 250,000 to the Philippines.
Source: UOL