RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The wealthiest man in Brazil is using his personal fortune to secure a place for the country in the race for a coronavirus vaccine.
Jorge Paulo Lemann is financing AstraZeneca vaccine trials in Brazil after he was approached by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he said in an interview with Bloomberg New Economy Forum on Tuesday. So far, Brazil’s results in fighting the pandemic “have not been good,” he said.
“It’s harder to be disciplined here, there are many favelas, many people,” Lemann said. “It’s harder to test, harder to tell them they can’t go out on the street – many of them are dependent on going out to work.”
Although the rate of new coronavirus infections in Brazil has somewhat slowed, concern has grown with increased hospitalizations in São Paulo – the epicenter of the disease in the country.
Brazil accounts for the third-largest number of coronavirus cases in the world, with over 5.9 million infections and behind only the U.S. in terms of deaths, with 166,699 fatalities. It has also become a political battlefield, with President Jair Bolsonaro’s government publicly arguing with governors over isolation measures and repeatedly downplaying the severity of the disease.
It has been no different when it comes to vaccines. Brazilian scientists were perplexed after ANVISA (Brazilian National Health Regulatory Agency) ordered the suspension of Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac trials last week after a volunteer died for reasons unrelated to the vaccine – the suspension was quickly reversed. Bolsonaro has repeatedly criticized the Chinese vaccine, which is being championed by one of his political rivals, São Paulo Governor João Doria.
Race for the vaccine
The foundation that bears the billionaire’s name is financing a production and trials unit of AstraZeneca in the country, according to Denis Mizne, the Lemann Foundation’s CEO. The foundation will also direct a larger share of its post-graduate scholarships to vaccine research projects.
The Lemann Foundation has joined other organizations – most with ties to Lemann himself – and spent some R$100 million (US$20 million) to upgrade a facility in Rio de Janeiro to produce up to 30 million doses of Astra’s vaccine per month as of early 2021. He also spent an undisclosed amount to finance trials across Brazil.
“People are very sensitive,” said Mizne, about the vaccine debate. “People are watching the scientific debate as if it were a soccer match, with commentators every minute. This is useless.”
The “tremendous” political noise only serves to feed people’s suspicions of the vaccine, according to Mizne. Nevertheless, he said both the São Paulo and Bolsonaro governments were right to buy batches of the experimental drug in advance and close deals to produce the vaccines locally.
Astra’s vaccine is under development with the University of Oxford and has shown promising results in human trials. The company has closed deals to supply hundreds of millions of doses of the experimental vaccine to the UK, U.S., Europe, and China. In Mexico, it has partnered with billionaire Carlos Slim to produce up to 250 million doses for Mexico and Argentina.
Brazil, struggling with its public accounts before the pandemic began, is facing a coronavirus outbreak while dealing with its continental size, world-famous bureaucracy, and clashes between state and federal governments. Companies and billionaires have been trying to expedite the process. Itaú Unibanco donated R$1 billion to create a new organization to fight the virus – its billionaire controlling families joined in with an additional R$200 million.
“Unless Brazil is on the vaccine research map, we will never really be able to emerge from this situation,” said Mizne.
Source: Bloomberg