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The authorization of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) for states and municipalities to buy vaccines against Covid-19 on their own has made governors and mayors intensify contacts with laboratories to make up for time lost due to the delay of the federal government in the negotiations But a shortage of immunizations has hampered the talks.
Since Thursday afternoon, when the STF confirmed the decision previously dictated by amparo, several governors have announced the reservation of resources and the search for meetings with laboratories to assume part of the purchase of vaccines, since the Ministry of Health only counts up to the moment with the CoronaVac, Sinovac and AstraZeneca Vaccines.
“We have initiatives from the governors’ forum and also from regional consortia. Everyone is struggling to find vaccines, but there is a supply problem,” Maranhão Governor Flávio Dino (PCdoB) told Reuters. “We are talking with several laboratories, but the problem is that for now everyone is signaling with longer deadlines, like after July.”
The expectation of the governors is that, with the decision of the STF, there will be a greater willingness of the laboratories to negotiate with the States. Rui Costa (PT), governor of Bahia, said in a transmission on his social networks that he had been talking with the producers of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, but the talks had not been advanced previously because there were no guarantees that the States could acquire the vaccine.
“I was in a joint since the weekend to resume negotiations. Now we will try to make up for lost time,” he said, explaining that he has a meeting with the Pfizer laboratory scheduled for next week and is trying another meeting with União Química, a producer. of Sputnik V in Brazil, during the next days.
In Rio Grande do Sul, the Legislative Assembly approved on Tuesday a law authorizing Governor Eduardo Leite (PSDB) to reallocate the state budget resources necessary for the purchase of vaccines by the state. According to Leite, the state government is initiating negotiations, individually and in initiatives with other states, with various laboratories, including Pfizer and União Química.
“It is not an easy task, it has a series of criteria and conditions, but we will not rest until we find all possible fronts to speed up vaccination,” said the gaucho governor in a video on his social networks. “We trust and work on the logic of the National Immunization Program, but we are not going to watch and wait for the contradictory messages from the federal government.”
The governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho (MDB), also announced that, together with the other governors, he is looking for vaccines and that the state has resources reserved for the purchase of 3 million doses.
“With this decision (of the STF) we will be strengthening, together with the Consortium of Governors of the Amazon and the Forum of Governors, so that we configure a pool of States to guarantee the acquisition of vaccines from various laboratories that are authorized by the agency of surveillance in Brazil and consortium with our country, ”Helder said on his social media.
The STF decision that authorizes the direct negotiation of governors and mayors conditions the federal government’s permission to breach the National Immunization Plan (PNI) against Covid-19 or if there are insufficient doses to face the pandemic.
Governments have been searching for laboratories since several cities were forced to halt their vaccination campaigns last week for lack of doses.
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The National Front of Mayors also said Tuesday that it will make a consortium of mayors to negotiate the purchase of vaccines.
The intentions of the governors and mayors, however, collide with the preference of the laboratories in the negotiations with the federal government.
According to a source with knowledge of Pfizer’s business for the sale of vaccines, the laboratory’s focus is on negotiations with the Ministry of Health and, at the moment, only these discussions are open. The company’s expectation is to finally close a deal in the coming weeks, after the definitive registration granted by Anvisa to its vaccine.
Globally, Pfizer only negotiated vaccines developed by the company in alliance with BioNTech with national governments and intends to repeat the strategy in Brazil, according to the source, who added that the negotiation with the ministry involves a greater number of doses than the negotiations that affirms and assures. greater legal security for the process.
In addition to Pfizer, the laboratories responsible for the vaccines Sputnik V, from Russia (Chemical Union / Gamaleya), and Covaxin, from India (Bharat Biotech / Precis Farmacêutica), have also concentrated negotiations with the Ministry of Health, which has even given to know the details of the funds for the purchase of 10 million from Sputnik and 20 million from Covaxin.
Initially, the Chemical Union even negotiated individually with the States. The governor of Bahia recalled that he came to make a pre-contract with the company in September last year and offered that the Ministry of Health take over, but there was no response.
Both vaccines have not yet received approval for use by Anvisa, but the STF, in its decision, also authorized states and municipalities to import and distribute vaccines registered by foreign regulatory agencies provided for by law.
To date, the Ministry of Health has received only around 16 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to distribute to the States, around 12 million CoronaVac, sent by the Butantan Institute, and 4 million AstraZeneca imported lists of India.
Just to vaccinate the first priority groups – health workers, the elderly, indigenous people and people with morbidities – 104.2 million doses of vaccine are needed, for a total of 49.6 million people (two doses per person , plus a 5% loss), according to the federal government’s vaccination plan.
The governor of Maranhão recalled that the federal government had several ongoing negotiations between August and September, but did not carry out any. In June, Pfizer offered 70 million doses of its vaccine, today the most widely used in the world, to the Brazilian government, but received no response.
“At least they could have offered it to the states at that time,” Dino complained.
When seeking comment on the state government negotiations, the Health Ministry did not respond. On other occasions, Minister Eduardo Pazuello has already stated that the federal government will buy the vaccines, that there are resources for that and, if a governor or mayor has a negotiation in progress, that the ministry will make the purchase.
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