Analysis: Breaking patents for vaccines would have little impact in Brazil and could pose challenges

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Government and domestic private laboratory authorities involved in the production of vaccines against Covid-19 agree that the strategy to break patents of immunizers and medicines would have little impact on vaccination in the country. The alignment was expressed yesterday in a virtual public hearing held by the Senate.

The possible overturning of patents has provoked a clash between senators this week. Yesterday, the government and health sector technicians invited by the Temporary Commission of Covid-19 said that the country might not take advantage of the measure for not having a solid industrial base in biotechnology.

“Brazil does not have a developed biotechnology industry. It has some initiatives in the public and private sectors, but not an industrial policy for biotechnology,” said the director of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas.

Read: At WTO meeting, Brazil does not support India’s proposal to waive vaccine patents

The institute’s director advised that China invests 4% of its GDP in the sector and, therefore, has a prominent position. “The Brazilian industrial policy has not kept up with the development of biotechnology in the world. We are a lagging country, we are simple absorbers or buyers of pharmacological inputs,” he said.

Another side effect pointed out by him would be the retaliations that the country could suffer with national patents. Currently, Butantan holds 40 patents. One of them, he said, is for the dengue vaccine, which is very close to becoming a worldwide vaccine.

The president of Fiocruz, Nísia Trindade Lima, evaluates that it is necessary to strengthen local production. “There are a number of complexities in the situation we face. The breaking of patents would only be the tip of the iceberg,” she said.

Concerned about preserving Brazil’s image, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ director of human rights and citizenship João Lucas de Almeida, defended that there should be no patent breaking. “We have to be pragmatic: breaking patents at this moment will probably generate a disorganization of the market, generate a feeling of distrust with respect to the few suppliers of vaccines and could, in fact, even delay this supply,” he said.

Almeida said there is a “third way”: use the idle capacity for vaccine production that exists in the world. “It is little, but it still exists,” he commented. This way out would involve the help of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which led Brazilian diplomacy to contact the director-general, Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

The president of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) Antonio Barra Torres, said that from his point of view, as a doctor, he is in favor. For him, no strategy should be discarded, because the pandemic could worsen. “There is no conviction among us that the worst phase has passed.”

Upon hearing that Brazil is 100% self-sufficient in vaccines for animals, the vice president of Fiocruz Mario Santos Moreira said that “it hits you in the eye” that the country manages to “vaccinate its herd”, but not the population. “We really need to discuss in depth, to understand why this happens.”

Read: Brazil Target of Protests in India for Opposing Vaccine Patent Waiver

Yesterday, the president of the National Union of the Animal Health Products Industry (Sindan) Delair Ângelo Bolis said that within a maximum of 90 days, the industry could adapt laboratories and produce Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for vaccines against Covid-19.

The sector will produce 400 million doses against foot-and-mouth disease, 200 million of which are already prepared for the beginning of the vaccination of animals in May.

Source: Valor