UPDATE 2-Brazil opens route for emergency approval of COVID-19 vaccines

(Adds lower house's approval of funding to buy and produce
AstraZeneca's vaccine locally)

By Ricardo Brito

BRASILIA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Brazil's health regulator Anvisa
said on Wednesday it was open to approving COVID-19 vaccines for
emergency use and outlined the requirements for companies
looking to do so.

Anvisa said authorizations would be analyzed on a
case-by-case basis and that to be considered the vaccine must be
in late-stage trials in Brazil. It said no requests had been
received so far.

AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer
and Sinovac currently have vaccines in Phase III
trials in Brazil.

The regulator said producers should still seek the usual
registrations for their vaccines.

On Tuesday, Brazil's Health Ministry unveiled a preliminary
plan for national immunization, prioritizing indigenous people,
health workers and those aged 75 years and older.

The ministry said it has so far guaranteed access to 142.9
million doses of vaccines against COVID-19.

Of those, 100.4 million doses are under an agreement with
AstraZeneca, and another 14.5 million through the Covax Facility
co-led by the World Health Organization.

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello told lawmakers on Wednesday
that Brazil would begin receiving about 15 million doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine between January and February, with 100
million doses arriving by the middle of the year.

Separately, in the second half of 2021, state-run biomedical
institute Fiocruz is also expected to produce up to 160 million
doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Pazuello said. On Wednesday,
Brazil's lower house of Congress approved almost 2 billion reais
($383.33 million) in funding for Fiocruz to buy and produce
AstraZeneca's vaccine locally.

In Sao Paulo, Governor Joao Doria has said he hopes to roll
out China's Sinovac vaccine in his state by January even if it
is not part of the federal government's immunization plan.

Doria has said he expects Sao Paulo to receive 46 million
doses of the Sinovac vaccine, called CoronaVac, by the end of
December and a total of 60 million doses by the end of February.

($1 = 5.2175 reais)
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito
Writing by Carolina Mandl and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by
Brad Haynes and Tom Brown)