Brazilian flu jab sold to Latin American neighbors
For the first time, São Paulo’s Butantan Institute is exporting doses of the trivalent influenza vaccine to Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Uruguay.
The almost 5.4 million doses are sold through a public bidding process spearheaded by the Pan-American Health Organization. The number of shots is up 484 percent from last year’s exports, the institute reported. International deliveries began late in March.
In 2021, Butantan’s influenza vaccine entered the pre-qualified list of the World Health Organization. The move validates the institute’s good practices in pharmacology, clinical studies, regulation, production, and quality in the production of the inoculation.
The vaccine is said to be composed of two type-A influenza viruses (H1N1 of the Sydney subtype, and H2N3 of the Darwin subtype) and a type-B strain, of the Victoria lineage.
