RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to the Ministry of Health, Brazil will have approximately 140 million doses of a vaccine against the coronavirus for the first half of next year. There will be 100 million doses from the agreement with Astrazeneca Pharmaceutical, which holds the Oxford University immunizer license, and another 42.5 million from the COVAX Facility initiative of the World Health Organization.
The production of 100 to 165 million doses of the Oxford vaccine by Fiocruz is also scheduled for the second semester, totaling at least 240 million doses of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus for 2021.
The government also said it is continuously monitoring several vaccine proposals. “Despite the deal with Astrazeneca/Oxford, despite all this investment in the Covax Facility, we continue to monitor several vaccine proposals worldwide,” said Hélio Angotti Neto, Secretary of Science, Technology, Innovation and Strategic Health Supplies.
Another nine vaccine developers have expressed interest in negotiating with the Brazilian government: Sinovac Biotech in partnership with the Butantan Institute, Moderna, Pfizer in partnership with BioNtech, Sinopharm, the Sputinik V Russian vaccine, Covaxx, Novavax, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical group) and Merck.
“We have constant meetings with companies developing the vaccine against Sars-CoV-2 that have an interest in conducting research in Brazil, in selling to Brazil. This follow-up occurs through the assessment of the available scientific evidence regarding the efficacy of these vaccines, regarding the safety of these vaccines, also involving criteria such the necessary logistics to distribute these vaccines and their delivery capacity”, explained Angotti Neto.
Source: Veja