São Paulo’s Butantan Receives One Million Doses of Chinese Covid-19 Vaccine

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Reuters) Brazil’s Butantan Institute biomedical center on Thursday, December 3rd, received 1 million doses of a Chinese vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech that is undergoing late-stage testing by the institute in São Paulo state.

The consignment of CoronaVac vaccine, which will be packaged and labeled at Butantan’s facilities, arrived at São Paulo’s Guarulhos airport.

It is the second shipment of the vaccine to arrive in Brazil, after 120,000 doses landed from China on November 19th; it still needs approval from federal health regulator ANVISA before it can be used. Butantan said it expected Sinovac to publish efficacy results for the treatment by Dec. 15.

“By the end of this month of December, we will be receiving 6 million doses,” and another 40 million by January 15th” São Paulo Governor João Doria said.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who many expect to be challenged by Doria in the 2022 presidential election, has long criticized the Sinovac vaccine.

Doria, meanwhile, has accused ANVISA of or becoming overly politicized after a surprise suspension of the Sinovac trial due to the suicide of a volunteer. The trial was restarted but President Bolsonaro called the halt a “victory” for himself.

ANVISA said on Wednesday, December 2nd, it was open to approving COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, that 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.