Brazil considers that the agreement by which it will have the technology to produce the vaccine against coronavirus that is being experienced by the Oxford University and the capacity of its laboratories will allow it to become the supplier of the immunizer for all 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 the production of the vaccine in Brazil in case the experiments demonstrate its efficacy and safety , according to the agreement announced this Saturday.
The agreement reached with the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, responsible for the most promising vaccine to date 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 later in the country autonomously.
“In case the vaccine is shown to 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,” he affirmed. 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 the vaccines in Brazil, currently has the capacity to manufacture up to 40 million doses of the vaccine per month without affecting any of its other lines of production. This capacity allows it to supply not only Brazil but also the majority of its neighbors.
For this, added Trindade Lima, Fiocruz 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 to a disbursement of $ 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 of the raw material produced by AstraZeneca laboratories 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 $ 161 million for the rights to produce another 70 million doses of a vaccine that will have a production cost of $ 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.
With information from EFE
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