Brazil will try to get around 10 million ready-to-use doses which it says are stored at an AstraZeneca plant in the United States, according to Piauí governor and National Governors Forum representative Wellington Dias.
During a press conference with the Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, he said that a consultation with the Americans on the possibility of importing this shipment is being discussed with Itamary, as they do not apply not the vaccine developed by the laboratory and the University of Oxford in its population.
“There is an AstraZeneca laboratory in the USA. We are dealing with this aspect with Itamaraty, with Brazilian diplomacy, so that we can consult each other, because what we know is that there is a vaccine ready in stock”, said Dias this Monday (8) to Bio-Manguinhos, the Fiocruz plant in Rio de Janeiro.
“Since AstraZeneca is not used in the United States, they could, due to the Brazilian situation, cede the sale in Brazil. There are 10 million or more doses that would be available. Because the United States also has adopted a measure to ban exports. to meet your needs. This is a global situation, “he continued.
Brazil is not the only one to have an eye on these doses. This Saturday (6), the “Financial Times” newspaper announced that the European Union would also ask the Americans to authorize the export of vaccines and to guarantee the free movement of consignments of inputs to the continent.
“We believe that we can work with the United States to ensure that vaccines produced or packaged in the United States to fulfill the contractual obligations of vaccine manufacturers to the EU are honored,” the European Commission said in the publication.
The delay in importing ready-to-use doses from India, slated for March, also came because Indians decided to ban vaccine exports, Minister Pazuello said. In total, 12 million doses are expected, of which 4 million have already been delivered. The rest was expected in March and April, but is now only scheduled from April to July.
This initiative was not initially included in Fiocruz’s plans, but it was an alternative to compensate for the delay in domestic production with China’s IFA (active pharmaceutical ingredient), which was slow to arrive. The doses come from the Serum Institute, one of the production centers linked to AstraZeneca in India.
“This lab has postponed delivery,” Pazuello said on Monday. “We are going to have to put political, diplomatic and even personal pressure on AstraZeneca to charge the serum lab with the delivery of the remaining 8 million. At that point, India as a country hampered the process because it was banning exports. “, did he declare. .
“So the countries of the world vary their diplomatic and trade positions because the section is really unstable. And that is why we speak of national production. If we do not have national production as we have today in Butantan and Fiocruz, we will do it so that we cannot mass vaccinate our country, ”he added.
FIOCRUZ SCHEDULE
January: 2 million imported from India (delivered) February: 2 million imported from India (delivered) March: 3.8 million (national production with imported IFA) April: 30 million (national production with imported IFA) May: 25 million (national production with imported IFA) June: 25 million (national production with imported IFA) July: 16.6 million (national production with imported IFA) 8 million additional doses are expected from India Total: 112 million by July