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BRASILIA – The Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, estimated this Tuesday in a meeting with governors that any vaccine against Covid-19 will take about 60 days to be approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The meeting had a fight between the governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB), and Pazuello, due to the lack of interest of the federal government in relation to CoronaVac, developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and which will be produced in Brazil in association with the Instituto Butantan, linked to the government of São Paulo.
After the meeting, the Ministry of Health reported that it had reached an agreement with the representatives of the states to ensure that the vaccine that obtains registration is purchased by the government, which includes CoronaVac.
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– Anvisa will need time to complete this mission. The record is around 60 days. If everything is round, we will have the effective AstraZeneca registration at the end of February, starting the vaccination – said Pazuello.
The meeting was a request from the governors to define a national vaccination strategy, after the São Paulo state government announced the start of vaccination in the state on January 25.
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Contrary to what was said, the perspective now is that all Brazilians are vaccinated. According to the governors who participated in the meeting with the minister, the goal was for the government to obtain 420 million doses to immunize the entire population.
According to these governors, the Ministry of Health will present the vaccination plan with details on the acquisition of supplies and dates for vaccination on Wednesday. The lack of details on vaccination logistics was a recurring criticism from managers and the industry.
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During the meeting, Doria questioned whether Pazuello did not favor CoronaVac due to “ideological, political or disinterest” and recalled that the minister had been disavowed by President Jair Bolsonaro after he promised to buy 46 million doses of the immunizer. Bolsonaro and Doria are political enemies.
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By highlighting the amounts already paid by the government for vaccines (R $ 1.2 billion for the Oxford immunizer and R $ 830 million for the Covax Facility consortium), Doria stated that they are all in the same situation as CoronaVac, without registration of the National Agency. Health Surveillance (Anvisa). And he questioned why the vaccine was not supported by the government:
– What difference, Minister, the condition and your management as Minister of Health, privileging two vaccines over another vaccine? Is it an ideological reason, is it a political reason, or is it a reason for a lack of interest in making more vaccines available?
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Then, Doria spoke again about the amounts already paid to other Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers:
– Your ministry paid R $ 1.2 billion to AstraZeneca without the vaccine, and CoronaVac, which is the Butantan vaccine, of which we already have a considerable portion, and that you, in the last meeting with 24 governors, announced that would buy 46 million. dose) … Unfortunately the president rejected it, he was inelegant with you in less than 24 hours and prevented his word from being fulfilled before the governors. Will your ministry buy the CoronaVac vaccine approved by Anvisa? Yes or no, minister?
Pazuello replied:
– I already explained to all the governors, when the Butantan vaccine, which is not from the state of São Paulo, is from Butantan, I don’t know why you speak as much as if you were from the state, she is from Butantan. Butantan is the largest vaccine manufacturer in our country and is respected for it. Butantan when they finish their work and have the vaccine registered, we will evaluate the demand and if there is demand and there is a price we will buy it. (…) If there is demand, price (inaudible), all vaccines, all productions will be the objective of our purchase.
