11/19/2020 11:32 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 11/19/2020 11:32 AM
Brazil received the first batch with 120,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine on Thursday, developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac Biotech to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
"It is a very important milestone," celebrated the governor of the state of San Pablo, Joao Doria, from the airport.
As reported by the regional government, the agreement between Sinovac and the Butantan Institute contemplates the shipment of
a total of 6 million doses
until the end of the year, as well as the delivery of raw material to manufacture another 40 million doses in São Paulo.
The vaccine arrived in Brazil through an agreement with the Butantan Institute, attached to the São Paulo government, and became the subject of a dispute between the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro and Doria, his political rival.
The confrontation rose a few decibels last week when the national health surveillance agency (Anvisa) suspended the trial on volunteers in Brazil for 48 hours, arguing "a serious incident" occurred during the tests.
Sinovac experts are working around the clock to apply the vaccine en masse.
AP Photo
Bolsonaro boasted on social media about the stoppage of the study, while the regional authorities of São Paulo, as well as the directive of the Butantan Institute, expressed "indignation" and guaranteed that the incident was not related to the investigational drug.
The suicide of a volunteer led to the suspension of the trials
, but Anvisa immediately authorized them to be resumed, stating that postponements in the study phase are common and that "does not necessarily mean that the product under investigation is not of quality, safe or effective ".
Anvisa authorization is necessary for the application of the vaccine in Brazil.
CoronaVac is one of the most advanced vaccines in the world, very close to the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which presented interim Phase 3 results showing 95% efficacy.
The Sinovac vaccine is also in phase 3 of human trials, the last stage before its homologation, which involves thousands of volunteers in Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey.
China has authorized since July, for "urgent" cases, the administration of experimental vaccines.
At least hundreds of thousands of Chinese have already received the Sinovac vaccine or those from the public Sinopharm laboratory.
Brazil, with 211 million inhabitants, has more than
167,000 deaths and almost 6 million infected
with the virus.
São Paulo, the most populous state in the country, registers more than 1.1 million cases and almost 41,000 deaths.
Other vaccines
Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik V, the three candidate coronavirus vaccines that announced efficacy results (90 percent and more) with preliminary data from their clinical trials, are advancing into phase 3.
This Thursday the second phase of clinical tests of the vaccine developed by the English University of Oxford showed that it is safe in healthy elderly people and causes an immune response of 99%, reported the medical journal "The Lancet".
It is the vaccine that will be manufactured in Argentina and Mexico and that President Alberto Fernández hopes will be ready to apply in March.
Meanwhile, the government agreed to purchase 25 million doses of the Russian vaccine between December and January.
Preliminary results from the last phase of clinical trials suggested that it is 92% effective.
The American company Moderna also announced that its experimental vaccine against coronavirus has an efficacy of 94.5%, in a trial that included about 30,000 volunteers and is in phase 3.
With information from AFP.
JPE
Look also
Pfizer announced that its coronavirus vaccine increased its effectiveness to 95% in the final analysis
China's coronavirus vaccine triggers a rapid immune response
