Future Fiocruz Industrial Complex to Provide Vaccine Self-Sufficiency to Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Industrial Complex of Biotechnology in Health of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Cibs/Fiocruz), now under construction, will increase fivefold the production capacity of the Institute of Technology in Immunobiology (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz).

Vaccines against meningitis, hepatitis, and triple bacterial infection, which are currently imported, will be produced at its base in the Industrial District of Santa Cruz, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro. In addition to production, specific vaccines for schistosomiasis and leprosy will also be added.

The New Final Processing Center (NCPFI) will cover a total area of 580,000 m² and 334,000 m² of buildings.

In addition to vaccines, the new complex will increase the production capacity of diagnostic kits and biopharmaceuticals, to meet the demand of the National Immunization Program and the Unified Health System (SUS), reaching 120 million vials per year.

Currently, the Bio-Manguinhos park located in Manguinhos, in the northern part of the city, manufactures 35 products, with its surplus exported to 74 countries. The projection for the new complex is to produce vaccines to also meet demands from Latin America and Africa, as well as from international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

According to the director of Bio-Manguinhos, Maurício Zuma, the complex will be the largest in Latin America and one of the largest and most modern in the world, giving the country the prerogative to stop importing a number of vaccines and produce others that do not arouse the interest of the global pharmaceutical industry.

“We will not only be able to incorporate new vaccines, greatly reduce imports, as well as producing vaccines for neglected diseases, for instance. We have projects under development, but we don’t have the capacity to produce them and nobody is interested in doing so. There [in Santa Cruz], we are going to have the capacity to include vaccines for minorities,” Maurício Zuma said.

Among the vaccines that could be produced in the new complex, Zuma mentions meningitis, hepatitis, and triple bacterial infection, which are currently imported, as well as for schistosomiasis and leprosy, which are therapeutic vaccines for a smaller target group.

Zuma stressed the strategic nature of the complex for the country. “It will allow us to have greater technological mastery. We will be on the frontier of knowledge in terms of production because we will use state-of-the-art technology. It will allow Brazil to have much greater sustainability in vaccine production. The National Immunization Program will be able to serve our population much better”.

Project

The Cibs/Fiocruz project started in 2011, searching for the land and drawing the conceptual design, to later adapt the executive project to the land. The director of Bio-Manguinhos said that the site is now ready to receive the building’s metal structures.

“We have completed the first two phases of the work. Today, the land is prepared, next, we will be assembling the metallic structures”.

According to him, the delay in construction is due to the project’s size and complexity. The delays, according to Zuma, also occurred due to the lack of continuity in public policies. Fiocruz is connected to the Ministry of Health.

“We were doing it in the past, the Temer government came in, they had two Ministers, then the Bolsonaro government, we already had three Ministers. As it’s a very big project, we always have to submit the project, convey the whole idea, it takes time. When a Minister is convinced of the importance of the project, he leaves”.

The federal government has so far invested R$700 (US$141) million in Cibs. Zuma reported that the bid for the construction of the project will be effected without public resources, in the built-to-suit model, that is, construction carried out by a landowner, tailored to the business of a future tenant. The financial return will occur after its completion, with the payment of rent for a fixed period of time, between 15 years to 20 years. After that, the property will be incorporated into Fiocruz.

“It’s an innovative way in public administration and it’s convenient because, in this funding crisis, the State will invest little. Then, we will pay the rent with our own resources, the value will be embedded in the cost of our products. We have conducted an economic feasibility study and we found that it can be done. Cibs’ own production will pay for the investment”.

According to Zuma, interim Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, who visited Bio-Manguinhos on May 25th, showed interest in the Santa Cruz project. “We had the opportunity to talk to him about the motivations for the project. He is quite convinced, and I believe that very soon we will have the cabinet’s authorization to start the bid.”

At the Fiocruz 120th anniversary ceremony, Pazuello said the Ministry of Health is committed to the Santa Cruz complex. Late last year, the Ministry announced it would invest R$3 billion in the complex’s construction.

Covid-19

Mauricio Zuma said the Covid-19 vaccine, as soon as it is available, will be manufactured in Fiocruz, even before the Santa Cruz complex is ready. A Fiocruz team from Minas Gerais is working on the vaccine’s development with Brazilian technology, but as soon as it is available in the international market, Brazil will be able to import the technique.

“We have great expectations, we are talking to at least four companies to produce a vaccine here and we are going to choose one, the one that comes first and that best fits the capabilities and facilities we have. We will wait until the end of the year to have this defined and, if possible, start producing the Covid-19 vaccine in our facilities”.

Zuma believes that Brazil will be of crucial importance in manufacturing the vaccine for the novel coronavirus to the benefit of all of Latin America, as is already the case with the yellow fever vaccine, since only Mexico and Cuba have immunobiological production plants in the region, “but very small”.

“The world does not produce enough vaccines for everyone. So a country like ours, with more than 210 million inhabitants, unless we have our own production, we risk having problems with epidemics in the country. We’ve been saying that for a long time.”

The federal government announced this week that the country will take part in the Vaccine Accelerator Project (ACT Accelerator), an international initiative that includes 44 countries to produce vaccines, drugs, and diagnostics against the novel coronavirus.

Source: Agência Brasil