Brazil announced on Friday its first nationally manufactured vaccine, Butanvac, developed by the state-run Butantan Institute and awaiting authorization from regulatory bodies to begin immediate human testing, Sao Governor anticipated. Paulo, Joao Doria.
“It is a historic announcement for the world. The 100% national vaccine, with promising evidence and the work of a 120-year-old institution, which is the largest vaccine producer in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said Doria at a press conference at the state laboratory headquarters in Sao Paulo.
Earlier, on her Twitter profile, Doria had anticipated the news in a video released after the meeting with the director of the Butantan Institute, Dimas Covas, which lasted until dawn.
“We have spectacular news, which fills us with hope in relation to health, science and life. The result of the work of the scientists at Butantan over several months of dedication and which we will be presenting for the scientific community in Brazil and internationally, “said Doria.
Covas indicated in the same video that the development of the net Brazilian vaccine is “a great contribution and will be the difference in the course of the epidemic and will help us fight it around the world.”
The Butantan Institute is currently packaging and also developing the production of the Coronavac vaccine, from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac and which serves 90% of the vaccination in Brazil. The remaining 10% is with the immunizer from the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the British University of Oxford.
The same institution conducts clinical studies in Brazil, authorized by the regulatory body, in order to experiment with a serum made from a virus inactivated by radiation and applied to horses, which produces IgG antibodies and the blood was extracted and purified with a technique also used for decades.
THE SAME FLU VACCINE TECHNOLOGY
At this Friday’s press conference, Covas detailed that the “new vaccine” will be developed from the “same technology” used for the flu immunizer, used for decades by this immune center.
“There is no vaccine in the world produced in embryonic eggs and it will cost much less than those being used,” said Covas, who said that the consortium for the immunizer also involved Vietnam and Thailand, countries in which clinical trials in humans will be performed.
“Our commitment is to offer this vaccine to low- and middle-income countries which is where we need to fight the pandemic. The pandemic may be under control in North America and Europe, but the virus will continue in countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, “added Covas, who did not detail the costs of the project.
Without “interfering” with the Coronavac process and schedule, Doria emphasized, the Butantan Institute has “already a production capacity of 160 million per year, with different types of vaccines, but in May we will be able to produce forty million the new one and we hope to start applying it in the second half of this year “.
“The order to Anvisa (National Agency for Health Surveillance, regulator) will be immediate, with a sense of urgency and respect for millions of Brazilians, and we will also send today (Friday) to the World Health Organization (WHO ) all the documentation to accompany this process in all its phases “, stressed Doria.
The new immunizer, according to the state laboratory, already contemplates its effectiveness in covid-19 variants, such as the Amazon discovered in the South American giant.
“It is a vaccine primarily for Brazilians, but then we will serve other sister and friendly nations, such as those in Latin America, the two technological allies we have and those who want it,” said Doria.