Brazil buys another 54 mi doses of vaccine against COVID-19

The country may have 400 mi doses by the end of this year

Published on 17/02/2021 - 12:32 By Agência Brasil - Brasília

Brazil’s Ministry of Health on Tuesday (Feb. 16) announced it has bagged another 54 million doses of vaccine CoronaVac against coronavirus after it signed a new deal with Butantan Institute, the São Paulo laboratory developing the vaccine in partnership with Chinese laboratory Sinovac.

Considering the 46 million doses already covered by previous deals, some 100 million vaccines should be distributed across the states by September.

Also this week, the ministry published the dates for receiving all vaccines purchased or in the process of being purchased.

By December, the ministry declared, Brazil is to receive 42.5 million doses of the vaccine provided by consortium Covax Facility, coordinated by the World Health Organization, which works as a center for the international distribution of vaccines. The first batch will have 10 million doses of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine and will be delivered by June. It is the country’s task to decide which supplier should provide the complementary doses.

Fiocruz inicia envase do primeiro lote de IFA da vacina Covid-19
The technology required for the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient incorporated by Rio de Janeiro’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation should enable the remaining 110 million doses to be available in the second half of 2021 - Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz

Also by the end of this year, Brazil will have made 222.4 million doses of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine against COVID-19 available. Under the schedule, half of this total will be distributed by June. The first doses started arriving in January. The country is also receiving shipments of the active pharmaceutical ingredient to produce the inoculation. The technology required for the production of the active pharmaceutical ingredient incorporated by Rio de Janeiro’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation should enable the remaining 110 million doses to be available in the second half of 2021.

New agreements

The Health Ministry in the coming days should sign contracts for the import of vaccine Sputnik V of Russia’s Gamaleya Institute through União Química, the laboratory to produce the vaccine in Brazil. From March to May, Brazil is set to receive ten million doses of the inoculation. After the active pharmaceutical ingredient technology is incorporated, União Química will start producing 8 million doses a month in Brazil.

The ministry expects to purchase from Precisa Medicamentos another 20 million doses of Covax/Bharat Biotech coming from India, also between March and May.

Translation: Fabrício Ferreira -  Edition: Nira Foster

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