RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A consortium of Brazilian companies and foundations will donate R$100 (US$20) million to equip and finance a national Covid-19 vaccine factory. The vaccine to be produced will initially be that developed by Oxford University together with the British pharmaceutical laboratory AstraZeneca.
The partnership was closed between Ambev, Americanas, Itaú Unibanco, Stone, the Votorantim Institute, the Lemann Foundation, the Brava Foundation and the Behring Family Foundation.
The partnership will fund the production equipment and a quality control laboratory, which will be managed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz). The group will invest in adjustments to the industrial park of the Bio-Manguinhos laboratory, in Rio de Janeiro, in order to allow the full absorption of the technology needed to produce the reagent doses.
Fiocruz is expected to produce 100 million doses of the Oxford vaccine domestically, according to an agreement signed between the Ministry of Health and the British university last week. The factory will handle the vaccine’s final processing – formulation, filling, labelling and packaging.
“We hope that this initiative will represent a solid contribution to our country, leaving a public legacy for millions of Brazilians to benefit from and also for Brazil to be better positioned and prepared to face other such challenges that may arise,” says billionaire Jorge Paulo Lemann, chairman of the Lemann Foundation Board, in a press release.