In an interview to the Lusa news agency, Doria explained that ButanVac, a covid-19 vaccine in the testing phase whose research and manufacturing will be carried out by Butantan, a scientific research institute linked to the regional government of São Paulo, will be used in the state’s vaccination plan due to begin in January 2022. In addition, the drug has interest from Latin American countries and São Paulo is available to negotiate with African countries.
“ButanVac will be an effective, safe and cheaper vaccine than the others, it will cost a quarter of what the cheapest vaccine available today in the Latin American market costs,” said the governor of São Paulo.
Developed from a technology similar to the production of flu vaccines – a drug that Butantan is one of the largest global producers -, ButanVac started phase 2 and 3 tests in Brazil this month and still needs to conclude some steps before being submitted to the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the country’s drug regulator.
Asked if African countries sought Butantan to obtain information about Butantan, which has an interesting price for developing nations and with difficulty to compete with rich countries in the global vaccine market, the governor of São Paulo said he was open to proposals and confirmed he expects the drug to be approved in 2021.
As for expressions of interest, Dória notes “Latin American countries”, but “countries from the African continent not yet. If they look for it, Butantan will be available to serve them. Butantan has already supplied flu vaccines to several countries in Africa, including the Portuguese-speaking countries. Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, East Timor and São Tomé have already purchased flu vaccines produced by Butantan,” Doria explained.
Besides ButanVac, the Institute also expects to start manufacturing all stages of CoronaVac, a vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, whose raw material is already packaged in Brazil.
“We will have two vaccines. The ButanVac produced integrally here, inputs and the bottling, at Butantan (…) we already have bottled 10 million doses, until October we will have 40 million doses just waiting for Anvisa’s approval to make the vaccine available”, told the governor.
“We will also have the [local production of] CoronaVac, in a new factory that is being finished (…) that already has all the equipment installed and, as of January, we will also be producing Coronavac in Brazil (…) If there is this demand, Butantan will certainly meet it. We will be able to produce in each one of the two plants one million doses of vaccines per day. It is 2 million doses per day and at the end of a month it will be 60 million doses”, he added.
Doria told that the presidents of Cape Verde, Jorge Fonseca, and Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, confirmed their presence in the reopening ceremony of the Portuguese Language Museum in Brazil, in the city of São Paulo, on July 31, and when asked if the São Paulo government intended to take the African heads of state to visit Butantan’s vaccine plants, he answered affirmatively.
“We hope they have the time and opportunity to make this visit to Butantan,” Doria concluded.
Brazil is the Portuguese-speaking country most affected by the pandemic and one of the hardest hit in the world by accounting for nearly 550,000 deaths and more than 19.5 million confirmed cases of covid-19.
