RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A first shipment of 88 liters of active ingredients to make AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil arrived from China on Saturday, which is essential to speed up the country’s difficult vaccination program.
With the supplies being flown to Rio de Janeiro by cargo plane, Fiocruz’s biomedical center could start filling and finishing 2.8 million doses. The federal funding center expects to receive more ingredients this month to make a total of 15 million shots of the vaccine developed with Oxford University.
The Fiocruz production line, which was originally scheduled to start production in December, came to a standstill due to delays in the first shipment of supplies from China.
The AstraZeneca Plc vaccine is the central pillar of Brazil’s national vaccination program, and the federal government has ordered materials for Fiocruz to make 100 million shots.
To start vaccinating its 210 million people, Brazil initially relied on the Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, and 2 million ready-to-use AstraZeneca shots imported from India last month.
Pfizer Inc. applied Friday for full regulatory approval in Brazil for its COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech’s, the company said.
This is the second vaccine to be submitted for registration in Brazil. AstraZeneca applied for full approval by the regulator of the vaccine on 29 January.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who says he will not take a COVID-19 shot, is under pressure after a slow and erratic vaccination in Brazil, which is now facing a second wave of infections.
Bolsonaro called the virus a ‘little flu’, but his government has come under fire for dealing with the world’s second deadliest coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 231,000 Brazilians.
Sao Paulo’s biomedical institute began filling 8.6 million doses of Sinovac’s vaccine called Coronavac on Saturday and dealing with ingredients that arrived from China on Wednesday.
Butantan said he expects to receive another stock of ingredients on Wednesday to make another 8.7 million doses.
Reporting by Sergio Queiroz, Writing by Anthony Boadle; Edited by David Gregorio