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Boxes with possible Covid-19 vaccine from Sinovac, Beijing (REUTERS / Tingshu Wang)
BRAZILIA (Reuters) – The Health Ministry is negotiating with the Butantan Institute to extend the CoronaVac acquisition contract to 100 million doses, to be delivered in the first half of 2021, the ministry’s Health Surveillance secretary said on Tuesday. . , Arnaldo Medeiros.
According to the secretary, the contract with Butantan is practically closed and the vaccine delivery schedule proposed by the institute foresees the delivery of 9 million doses in January, 15 million in February and 22 million in March, adding to the 46 million expected. initially, but the government is already negotiating an increase in the contract.
“Yesterday we had a meeting to expand this purchase to 100 million at the end of the first semester,” said the secretary, at a meeting of the External Commission to Combat Covid-19 of the Chamber of Deputies.
Medeiros also said that, in addition to Butantan, the contract with the Pfizer laboratory is being advanced and calculates that, adding the production of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil may have at least 150 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in the first half of 2021, even without the planned expansion with Butantan.
According to the president of Fiocruz, Nísia Lima, the foundation will receive assets for the production of vaccines as of January and plans to deliver the first doses on February 8, provided that all registration procedures are completed.
The forecast is that Fiocruz will produce 1 million doses of vaccines per week, in the first two weeks, and then 700,000 daily doses, after the production adjustment period.
Regarding the agreement with Covax Facilidades, the secretary reported that he expects a position from the World Health Organization (WHO) in the coming days on which laboratory will have the availability of vaccine delivery and how many doses Brazil will be able to buy in the first moment. Brazil has a forecast of buying 42.5 million doses by the agency.
Last week, the Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, announced that the first deliveries should occur in January, with an amount of 24.5 million doses in all three laboratories in the month.
The Ministry of Health presented last week the national immunization plan that includes the three different vaccines, although, to date, it has not yet concluded agreements with Pfizer and the Butantan Institute, which is responsible for the local production of the Sinovac vaccine. . .
The government has, to date, an agreement signed with the AstraZeneca laboratory for the acquisition of doses and the transfer of technology for local production at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), and has also signed the international pact for access to Covax vaccines.
So far, no vaccine has received authorization from the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) to be applied in the country.
Medeiros also reported that the Ministry of Health intends to close a contract for the acquisition of 330 million syringes for vaccination on January 10. An electronic trading session is open until the 29th of this month.
However, according to Francieli Fantinato, Coordinator of the Ministry’s National Immunization Program, the material is expected to arrive only in February.
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