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(Adds age limit removed, details of vaccines tested in Brazil)
BRASILIA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Brazil's health regulator
Anvisa on Tuesday authorized AstraZeneca PLC to test its
COVID-19 vaccine on an additional 5,000 volunteers in the
country for clinical Phase III trials, the Sao Paulo university
coordinating the test said.
The increase, in addition to 5,000 volunteers already
recruited and being vaccinated, will help provide more solid
results on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, the Federal
University of Sao Paulo said in a statement.
It said volunteers over the age of 18 were being sought in
the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Rio Grande do Sul, at
opposite ends of Brazil. Anvisa has waived the age limit that
was 69 years previously, so older volunteers can be vaccinated.
AstraZeneca, which is developing the vaccine with Oxford
University, paused global trials temporarily last week after an
unexplained illness in a participant in Britain.
The vaccination of volunteers resumed on Monday in Brazil,
where, so far, 4,600 people had received the first of two doses
in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador in the northeastern
state of Bahia, where a hospital is conducting the tests.
Brazil has the third-worst coronavirus outbreak in the world
after the United States and India, and has become a sought-after
testing ground for COVID-19 vaccines under development in
Britain, China and Russia.
Phase III clinical trials of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine
against COVID-19 will be conducted in the Brazilian states of
Bahia and Parana, which has plans to produce the vaccine for
Brazil and other Latin American countries.
Phase III clinical trials of a vaccine developed by China's
Sinovac Biotech Ltd are under way in the state of Sao
Paulo, whose governor said last week it may be available to
Brazilians as early as December.
Some 9,000 Brazilian volunteers are participating in the
Sinovac vaccine trials, which are being conducted by the
Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo city and 11 other locations,
including the capital Brasilia.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Franklin Paul and
Bernadette Baum)
