RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A first shipment of 88 liters of active ingredients to make AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in Brazil arrived from China on Saturday, a vital input to accelerate the country’s troubled vaccination program.
With those supplies flown to Rio de Janeiro by cargo plane, the Fiocruz Biomedical Center can begin filling and finishing 2.8 million doses. The federally funded center expects to receive more ingredients this month to make a total of 15 million injections of the vaccine developed with Oxford University.
The Fiocruz production line, which was originally scheduled to start production in December, has been halted due to delays in picking up the first supply of supplies from China.
The AstraZeneca Plc vaccine is the central pillar of Brazil’s national vaccination program, and the federal government has ordered material for Fiocruz to make up to 100 million injections.
To begin vaccinating its 210 million people, Brazil initially relied on the Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd and 2 million ready-to-use AstraZeneca shots imported from India last month.
Pfizer Inc applied for full approval in Brazil on Friday for its COVID-19 vaccine developed with BioNTech Se, the company said.
It is the second vaccine submitted for registration in Brazil. AstraZeneca filed for full regulatory approval of the vaccine on January 29.
President Jair Bolsonaro, who says he will not take any injection of COVID-19, is under pressure after a slow and patchy introduction of vaccines in Brazil, which is now facing a second wave of infections.
Bolsonaro called the virus a “ minor flu, ” but his government is facing growing criticism over its handling of the world’s second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak, killing more than 231,000 Brazilians.
The Butantan Biomedical Institute in Sao Paulo said Saturday it has begun filling and finishing 8.6 million doses of Sinovac’s vaccine called Coronavac with ingredients arriving from China on Wednesday.
Butantan said it expects to receive another supply of ingredients on Wednesday to make an additional 8.7 million doses.
Report by Sergio Queiroz, written by Anthony Boadle; Editing by David Gregorio