SAO PAULO — The first vaccine against Covid-19 to reach Brazilians, in January, CoronaVac has an uncertain future for 2022. With no federal orders for 2022, the immunizing agent developed in China by the pharmaceutical company Sinovac BionTech and operated in Brazil by the Butantan Institute it lives in a limbo where before there were high expectations.
The current status of CoronaVac is hardly reminiscent of the wave of optimism generated by its application to nurse Monica Calazans, on January 1st, a scene that transformed the plot of the fight against the pandemic in the country. Almost a year after this debut, the immunizing agent is, for now, out of the Ministry of Health’s plans for the National Immunization Program (PNI).
About two months ago, when the factory at the Butantan Institute bottled the most recent units, the vaccine has no new shipments produced in Brazil. New purchases of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (IFA), from China, are not ordered and are not expected to arrive. Last Friday, the Brazilian government announced that it will send 500,000 doses to Paraguay, in a donation to the Covax Facility consortium, led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
See more:
The timid presence of CoronaVac today clashes with the ambitious plans outlined for the immunizing agent at the beginning. Butantan’s projects, in line with the governor of São Paulo, João Doria, involved total independence in the production of the antigen on São Paulo soil. For this purpose, the institute started the installation of an 11 thousand square meter factory in its production yard, in the west side of the city of São Paulo.
Delayed, the works should extend over the next year. The previous deadline for the delivery of the building, announced by Butantan, was September 2021 — with the first doses being fully produced in Brazil in December — which, of course, did not happen. Now, the forecast for having the factory fully operational is the second half of 2022, said Dimas Covas, director of the Butantan Institute.
“It will be able to function, but which vaccine to produce is a question that cannot be answered right now,” Covas said.
After this phase, the first vaccines should only be produced after regulatory procedures. The cost to set up the construction is around R$ 200 million, not counting equipment.
SAO PAULO — The first vaccine against Covid-19 to reach Brazilians, in January, CoronaVac has an uncertain future for 2022. With no federal orders for 2022, the immunizing agent developed in China by the pharmaceutical company Sinovac BionTech and operated in Brazil by the Butantan Institute it lives in a limbo where before there were high expectations.
The current status of CoronaVac is hardly reminiscent of the wave of optimism generated by its application to nurse Monica Calazans, on January 1st, a scene that transformed the plot of the fight against the pandemic in the country. Almost a year after this debut, the immunizing agent is, for now, out of the Ministry of Health’s plans for the National Immunization Program (PNI).
About two months ago, when the factory at the Butantan Institute bottled the most recent units, the vaccine has no new shipments produced in Brazil. New purchases of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (IFA), from China, are not ordered and are not expected to arrive. Last Friday, the Brazilian government announced that it will send 500,000 doses to Paraguay, in a donation to the Covax Facility consortium, led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
See more:
The timid presence of CoronaVac today clashes with the ambitious plans outlined for the immunizing agent at the beginning. Butantan’s projects, in line with the governor of São Paulo, João Doria, involved total independence in the production of the antigen on São Paulo soil. For this purpose, the institute started the installation of an 11 thousand square meter factory in its production yard, in the west side of the city of São Paulo.
Delayed, the works should extend over the next year. The previous deadline for the delivery of the building, announced by Butantan, was September 2021 — with the first doses being fully produced in Brazil in December — which, of course, did not happen. Now, the forecast for having the factory fully operational is the second half of 2022, said Dimas Covas, director of the Butantan Institute.
“It will be able to function, but which vaccine to produce is a question that cannot be answered right now,” Covas said.
After this phase, the first vaccines should only be produced after regulatory procedures. The cost to set up the construction is around R$ 200 million, not counting equipment.
