RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Ministry of Health and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) yesterday launched a public notice opening the bidding process for hiring companies interested in building the new Industrial Complex of Biotechnology in Health (CIBS) in Santa Cruz, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro.
The venture is scheduled to begin operations in 2025 and will quadruple the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation Institute of Technology in Immunobiology’s (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz) vaccine and biopharmaceutical production capacity.
With the published notice, potential contractors will have a period of 120 days for appropriation and study of the project to subsidize the preparation of their proposals. Construction will be carried out through a model called Build to Suit, with private investors paid in the form of rent and with the reversion of the patrimony after the period of 15 years. The investment amounts to approximately R$3.4 billion (US$629 million), and the monthly rent may not exceed 1% of funding.
The construction foresees the creation of 5,000 direct jobs, and the operation of the enterprise will employ 1,500 workers. Once in full operation, the complex will be able to produce 120 million vaccine vials and biopharmaceuticals per year, and may exceed 600 million doses per year.
The announcement was celebrated in a ceremony at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, attended by Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) representative in Brazil, Fiocruz president Nísia Trindade and the director of Bio-Manguinhos Mauricio Zuma.
The Minister stated that the project reinforces Fiocruz’s 120-year legacy and stressed that the vaccines to be produced in the complex will save lives not only in Brazil, but in all of Latin America. “The Ministry of Health is proud today to launch together with Fiocruz the largest industrial biotechnology complex in health in Latin America. This is very important, and if there were doubts about this importance, the Covid-19 pandemic has dispelled this doubt.”
One of the project leaders, the Bio-Manguinhos director explained that the industrial complex is critical to reducing Brazil’s dependence on imported vaccines, which accounted for 45% of the doses purchased through the National Immunization Program in 2020.
“This project is a guarantee of the National Immunization Program’s sustainability in the coming decades,” he said, stressing other advantages, such as the strengthening of domestic industry and the development of western Rio de Janeiro.
Zuma explained that approximately R$1 billion has already been earmarked for the initial phases of the project, such as earthmoving, piling, environmental compensation and the development of conceptual, basic and executive projects. In addition, large equipment to be used in the industrial plants has already been purchased, as these items take time to be produced and need to be installed before the buildings are completed.
According to Fiocruz president Nísia Trindade, the Covid-19 pandemic has forced countries to rethink their option to import essential health supplies.
“It’s time to think along with this complex a large science and technology agenda for our country in the health field that will place autonomy and investment in science not as a cost, but rather as an effective investment in the future of our country, our sovereignty, our social development and the health of our peoples.”