Brazil announces purchase of 100 million doses of Pfizer vaccine

BRASILIA.- The Brazilian government of Jair Bolsonaro today announced the purchase of 100 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, which must be delivered until September, as part of the plan to accelerate vaccination against the coronavirus which has already killed nearly 280,000 in the country. The Minister of Health, Eduardo Pazuello, also announced the acquisition for the second half of the year of 38 million doses of the Janssen vaccine, a single dose, from the American pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.

With the purchase announced on Monday, Brazil has ordered some 562 million doses of vaccine to be delivered by the end of the yearsaid the head of the sanitation portfolio, a figure that contrasts with the campaign’s slow start since mid-January, with interruptions in some states due to late deliveries.

The announcement comes two days after signing a purchase contract for 10 million doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, , within the framework of an agreement which envisages the possibility of manufacturing the immunizer in the factories of the Unión Química laboratory, in Brasilia and São Paulo.

In addition, a group of state governors from the Northeast region reached another agreement with the Russian Fund for Direct Investments for the purchase of 39 million doses of Sputnik V. This agreement was made possible thanks to a law, recently passed, which allows the governments of different states and municipalities to purchase drugs independently of the national government.

Until last Thursday, Brazil – a country of 212 million people – had vaccinated 9.2 million people with the Oxford vaccines and Chinese CoronaVac inoculations, from the Sinovac laboratory.

About three million Brazilians have received the Oxford vaccine and six million have been immunized with Coronavac, which was imported by the state of São Paulo. The agreement with the Sinovac laboratory envisages the manufacture of the Coronavac immunizer at the Butantan Institute in São Paulo. For now, Coronavac has emergency use authorization.

AFP and ANSA agency

THE NATION