Brazil to buy 20 million more doses of China’s CoronaVac, Governor says

Sao Paulo (Reuters): Brazil is in talks to buy an additional 20 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, the Governor of Sao Paulo told Reuters in a Thursday interview, in a show of confidence in the Chinese shot.

The order, which has not been previously reported, will come on top of the 100 million doses of the vaccine, known as CoronaVac, already secured by Sao Paulo’s Butantan biomedical institute, Governor Joao Doria said.

The state-run institute led mass clinical testing of the vaccine in Brazil and is now filling and finishing doses for a national immunisation program, with plans for 100% domestic production in early 2022. The only other COVID-19 shot approved for emergency use in Brazil is the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Doria, Governor of the country’s wealthiest and most populous state, has been the driving force behind CoronaVac’s testing and rollout in Brazil, bolstering his presidential ambitions and feeding a rivalry with President Jair Bolsonaro.

But with efficacy of just over 50% in the Brazilian trial, well below other choices on the market, some have questioned whether Brazil should pursue other vaccines as it confronts the deadliest outbreak outside the United States.

Bolsonaro, a China critic and COVID-19 sceptic, initially dismissed the Sinovac vaccine but has changed tack in the absence of alternatives, after his Health Ministry dallied in securing contracts with vaccine developers.

The pandemic has killed nearly 230,000 people in Brazil, and a new variant that emerged in the city of Manaus has proven devastating in a second wave now hammering the jungle city.