Brazil considers that the agreement by which it will have the technology to produce the coronavirus vaccine that is being experimented by the University of Oxford and the capacity of its laboratories will allow it to become the supplier of the immunizer for all of Latin America.
The forecast is from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), the largest medical research center in Latin America and linked to the Ministry of Health, which will be responsible for vaccine production in Brazil in case the experiments demonstrate their efficacy and safety, according to the agreement announced this Saturday.
The agreement reached with the University of Oxford and with the pharmaceutical company AstraZenecaresponsible for the most promising vaccine so far against COVID-19, guarantees the Brazilian Ministry of Health initially 100 million doses of the medicine and allows it, thanks to the transfer of technology, to produce it in the country later on autonomously.
“In case the vaccine be effective, and thanks to the fact that we are the reference in the region and that we have great productive capacity, the agreement allows us to become responsible for supplying the vaccine in Latin America ”, stated the president of Fiocruz, Nísia Trindade Lima, quoted in a statement from the entity.
The official said that Fiocruz, which is responsible for the development and production of most of Brazil’s vaccines, currently has the capacity to manufacture up to 40 million doses of the vaccine per month without affecting any of its other production lines.
This capacity allows it to supply not only Brazil but also the majority of its neighbors.
For this, added Trindade Lima, Fiocruz it only needs an investment in its laboratories already foreseen in the agreement and a possible increase in productivity through the establishment of new work shifts and the rearrangement of some productive activities.
The agreement announced this Saturday commits Brazil with a disbursement of US $ 288 million for the first 100 million doses and for the transfer of technology to produce a vaccine that is already in its third phase of clinical trials (with humans) and is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the most advanced and promising.
In a first phase of the agreement, Brazil will pay $ 127 million for 30.4 million doses of the vaccine that it will receive in two batches, one in December 2020 and the other until January 15, 2021.
The country will initially import all the raw material produced by the laboratories of AstraZeneca abroad and will produce the vaccines in Fiocruz laboratories in Rio de Janeiro.
In a second stage, and in case the safety and efficacy of the vaccine is proven, Fiocruz will be able to start producing the active ingredient in the country, making it totally autonomous in the manufacture of the medicine.
The ministry will pay US $ 161 million for the rights to produce another 70 million doses of a vaccine that will have a production cost of US $ 2.30 per unit.
The agreement was announced at a time when Brazil accumulates 56,197 deaths and 1,284,214 confirmed cases of the disease, according to data from a media consortium that compiles statistics directly from regional health secretariats.
Those figures confirm the South American giant as the second country most affected by the disease, behind only the United States, and as one of the new global epicenters of the pandemic.
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