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(Recasts with plan to seek approval for emergency use)
By Eduardo Simões and Ricardo Brito
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Brazil will soon
weigh emergency use approval for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine
after Britain led the way on Wednesday, as Latin America's
largest country rushes to catch up with immunization programs
underway around the region.
Brazil's health regulator Anvisa met with AstraZeneca Plc
representatives in the morning and released a statement
saying the company's local partners, federally-funded biomedical
institute Fiocruz, will file for emergency use authorization.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve the
coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University and
AstraZeneca. The U.K. approval offers hope to Brazil, which has
made the cheap and sturdy British vaccine the cornerstone of its
widely criticized vaccine plan.
President Jair Bolsonaro, a prominent coronavirus skeptic
who has said he will not take any COVID-19 vaccine, is under
pressure to speed up Brazil's rollout, as regional peers Mexico,
Chile and Argentina have already begun immunizations.
Rio de Janeiro-based Fiocruz, which has agreed to import and
bottle some 100 million doses for the government by June and
eventually produce the vaccine locally, had previously said it
would seek full regulatory approval for the shot on Jan. 15.
On that basis, Health Ministry officials had said nationwide
vaccinations would begin Jan. 20 in a best-case scenario.
Anvisa's press representatives declined to say when Fiocruz
would file its request for emergency use.
Once submitted, Anvisa said it will take up to 10 days to
review the application, adding that the ongoing submission of
late-stage trial results would help to accelerate the process.
AstraZeneca and Fiocruz did not immediately answer questions
on plans and timing for seeking regulatory approval.
Earlier in the day, AstraZeneca said it was working
to offer its COVID-19 vaccine to Brazilians as soon as possible,
but made no mention of seeking emergency use approval, which
Pfizer Inc has described as cumbersome in Brazil.
The U.K. approval may add to pressure on Brazilian health
regulator Anvisa to expedite its own approval processes.
Anvisa did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While some vaccines, such as Pfizer's COVID-19 shot, must be
supercooled to -70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit), the
AstraZeneca vaccine only needs normal refrigeration, making it a
more robust candidate for developing countries such as Brazil.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes in Sao Paulo and Ricardo Brito in
Brasilia
Writing by Gabriel Stargardter and Jamie McGeever
Editing by Brad Haynes and Alistair Bell)
