Brazil clears emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca and Sinovac Coronavirus vaccines

The National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) authorized this Sunday emergency use of vaccines against the coronavirus from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac and the Anglo-Swedish AstraZeneca, the last step to start vaccination in Brazil, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic.

With three votes in favor of the authorization – and with two members of the management to vote – the regulatory body approved the emergency use of the two antidotes, after a five hour meeting, which was broadcast live and in which the five members of management analyzed the opinions prepared by 50 people from three technical fields.

In its recommendations, Anvisa said the technical fields say they will approve the use but that it will be necessary to monitor the progress of both vaccines. According to the Agency, the overall efficacy of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine is 70.42% and that of Coronavac is 50.39%.

Mendes said there were still doubts about the effectiveness of vaccines in those over 65 and with the application of lower doses: “There is a trend in favor of protection, but we need to watch more closely . “

At the same time, this Saturday, Anvisa said she needed more information on phase 3 of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V clinical trials before making a decision.

Brazil is the second country with the most deaths in the world (205,964) and the third in number of infections (8,256,536), and after a year of a first wave that gave no truce to the main cities of the territory.

AFG