RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In testimony to the Covid CPI (parliamentary investigative committee) on Thursday, May 27, Butantan Institute director Dimas Covas, said that in December last year, when the world was starting Covid-19 vaccination, the Butantan Institute had produced 5.5 million Coronavac doses and 4 million were being processed. Neither batches had a contract with the Ministry of Health.
According to the director, had it not been for the “mishaps” the Institute had to face during the period, “both from the contract and regulatory perspective,” Brazil could have begun immunization against Covid-19 still last year.
The Butantan director stated that while most countries had regulated the emergency use of Covid-19 vaccines by mid-last year, the Brazilian health regulatory agency (ANVISA) only issued regulations in December 2020.
According to Covas, were it not for these “delays,” Brazil could have been the first country in the world to start vaccination against Covid-19. For Covas, the scenario failed to materialize due to a lack of “greater agility by all these parties.”
Dimas Covas presented to senators the chronology of negotiations with the Ministry of Health for the purchase of Coronavac, stating that had the government signed a contract submitted to the Ministry in July last year, 60 million vaccine doses could have been delivered to the National Immunization Program by December 2020.
Covas further stated that the government’s “comings and goings” regarding the issue, albeit not hindering the quantity of vaccines delivered to the portfolio, continued to delay the immunization delivery schedule. The final contract with the government was signed on January 7 this year.
No financial support
In his statement, Dimas Covas also said that, to date, there has been no financial support from the Ministry of Health for the production of the Coronavac. He also said that the negative campaign on social networks against the immunizer hindered the clinical trials phase, due to volunteer recruitment issues.
“The clinical trial was supposed to be completed in October, but then we began to struggle with clinical trials. The challenge was the speed at which volunteers were recruited because, at that time, there was a turbulent environment, a very heated campaign against this vaccine on social networks,” he said.
Covas also recalled that, before signing with Chinese Sinovac pharmaceutical company, the Institute looked for several partnerships to develop a vaccine, but considered the partnership with the company ideal because the technology used is the same that Butantan has mastered for other vaccines. “At the time there was no commercial clause with Sinovac, it was a partnership,” the director said.
Carelessness
For the leader of the opposition in the Chamber, deputy Alessandro Molon (PSB-RJ), Dimas Covas’ opening statement to the Covid CPI indicates that “once again, the Bolsonaro government’s disregard for vaccines is evident.”