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By Rodrigo Viga
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 15 (Reuters) - Brazil could begin full
production of AstraZeneca Plc's COVID-19 vaccine by July
if regulators allow, an official at biomedical center Fiocruz
said, moving up by 100 days the timeline to produce shots
without imported ingredients.
Fiocruz Vice President Marco Krieger told Reuters that, if
health regulator Anvisa waives some controls, the biomedical
institute could move up the Sept. 30 target date for 100% local
production of the shot by AstraZeneca and Oxford University.
"This would be important at a time when Brazil is facing
vaccine shortages," Krieger said in an interview on Friday.
Delays in getting supplies from India and China have slowed
Fiocruz's finishing line and Brazil's vaccination program. Only
6% of Brazil's adult population has had their first of two
shots.
Federally funded Fiocruz, based in Rio de Janeiro, has
delivered 4 million ready-made vaccines from India and is
filling and finishing shots with active ingredients from China.
Delivery of those doses, starting this week, is expected to
total 100.4 million by July.
Fully local production of the vaccine is scheduled for
September, when Fiocruz plans to start delivery of 110 million
doses for Brazil's immunization program.
Given the urgent need for vaccines in Brazil, which lost
more than 12,000 lives to the pandemic last week alone, Krieger
said he hoped Anvisa would help to shorten that timeline.
As the vaccine is already in use in Europe and elsewhere,
Krieger said Fiocruz may be able to get Anvisa's approval after
the regulator supervises production of just one batch, rather
than the customary three batches.
Along with the 4 million AstraZeneca doses, Brazil's
government has received 20.6 million doses of CoronaVac, made by
China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd and bottled by Sao Paulo's
Butantan Institute with active ingredients from China.
On Friday, Anvisa granted final approval for AstraZeneca's
vaccine. CoronaVac has been approved for emergency use.
Krieger said output from Fiocruz should reach 1 million
doses a day by the end of March. By then, Fiocruz will have
received another shipment of ingredients from China to make 30
million doses, he said.
Krieger did not address the British vaccine being halted
last week in Denmark, Norway and Iceland over bleeding and
clotting issues.
AstraZeneca said on Sunday a review of safety data of people
vaccinated with its COVID-19 vaccine has shown no evidence of
increased risk of blood clots.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier
Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Richard Chang)
