Argentina to negotiate to buy Chinese Coronavac vaccine from Brazil

Within hours of the arrival of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in Argentina, a Brazilian laboratory assured that they are negotiate agreement to sell Chinese Coronavac vaccines to Argentina, from the laboratory Sinovac.

It is the Butantan Institute, a Brazilian public laboratory in the State of São Paulo, whose director, Dimas Covas, reported that they are “Advanced“negotiations with Argentina for the signing of a contract. Fuentes del Argentine Ministry of Health confirmed at the agency Telam the existence of conversations.

“There are contracts in the signing phase and that It’s more advanced until the time is with Argentina. Contracts are being discussed with Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador and Honduras. We will also bid for the Pan American Health Organization through a call for tenders, ”he explained.

At the same press conference in São Paulo, Covas and the Secretary of Health of this Brazilian state, Jean Gorinchteyn, announced that the vaccine Coronavac is more than 50% effective (the exact number has not been communicated for confidentiality reasons) and is ready to be registered with the National Agency for Health Surveillance, the Brazilian Anmat.

Brazil: new details on the death of a Chinese vaccine volunteer unveiled

The final results that were to be announced were postponed for 15 days at the request of Sinovac to comprehensively assess the data obtained after the end of the clinical trials.

San Pablo signed a contract to purchase 46 million doses of Coronavac and set up a factory for manufacture the vaccine from the end of 2021 in your factory. The centennial Instituto Butantan is the main supplier of vaccines in Brazil and owns the largest public vaccine factory in the southern hemisphere. he Brazilian Ministry of Health has included Coronavac in its 2021 vaccination schedule

The news of this negotiation comes at the very moment when the Brazilian institute Butantan has assured that the Coronavac vaccine test, which is developing with the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, they were satisfactory and what do you hope to start apply the immunizer in january, although he declined to give details of the studies.

The phase 3 vaccine test results against covid-19, they have reached the “threshold of effectiveness which makes it possible to request an authorization for an emergency use both in Brazil like in China, “said the director of the public institute of the state of Sao Paulo, Dimas Covas, during a press conference.

But he failed to detail the percentage of effectiveness, because Sinovac “asked for a period of 15 days, provided for by the contract”, to analyze the data from these tests, which Brazil were applied to 13,000 volunteers and that also had clinical trials in China, Indonesia and Turkey.

Cordoba continues to negotiate the arrival of Chinese vaccines

“We will meet this deadline, but we believe that the date will be brought forward and we hope that the vaccine will reach the arms of Brazilians as soon as possible, at the beginning of the year “added.

The minimum efficiency required by WHO is 50%, but some labs like Pfizer and Moderna, whose vaccines are already administered in UK and US, achieved more than 90%, the agency reported AFP.

The state of Sao Paulo plans to launch its campaign vaccination January 25, although this will depend on the permission of the National Agency for Health Surveillance (Anvisa).

The politicization of the Chinese vaccine in Brazil

The vaccine race is crucial in Brazil, the second country with the most deaths from the novel coronavirus, with more than 188,000 dead. The question became a subject of political polarization.

The far-right president Jair Bolsonaro fired in negative terms to CoronaVac, promoted by the governor of Sao Paulo, Joao doria, who is emerging as one of his main opponents in the presidential elections of 2022.

The government has however included vaccination of Sinovac and Butantan in the national vaccination program, presented last week.

Brazil: Bolsonaro politicizes coronavirus vaccine

Covas said the executive plans to purchase about 100 million doses of CoronaVac from the institute, more than double the 46 million originally planned.

The vaccination plan also includes the purchase of the vaccine developed by Oxford with the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the Brazilian institute Fiocruz (which performs tests on Brazil), as well as those of the international conglomerate Covax and those of Pfizer-BioNTech (USA / Germany).

Dimas Covas, however, indicated that Butantan has the exclusivity for the distribution of CoronaVac in all Latin American countries, except Chile (which had already concluded a prior agreement with Sinovac) and which could sign a contract with Argentina this week.

EuDr