Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa on Friday approved a request by biomedical institute Fiocruz to import more doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford from the Serum Institute of India, without specifying how many. Fiocruz said in a statement, without referencing Anvisa’s approval, that it was negotiating imports of 2 million more doses from the Serum Institute, in addition to 2 million already agreed.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is important because it forms the bulk of the stockpile acquired so far by the U.N.- backed effort known as COVAX, which aims to deploy coronavirus vaccines to people globally. COVAX plans to start shipping hundreds of millions of doses of the vaccine worldwide later this month, but that is contingent on WHO approval for the shot, vaccine stocks and countries’ readiness to receive it.
Independent experts advising the World Health Organization about immunization on Wednesday recommended the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine even in countries that turned up worrying coronavirus variants in their populations. The WHO experts’ advice is used by health care officials worldwide, but doesn’t amount to a green light for the United Nations and its partners to ship the vaccine to countries that have signed up to receive the shots through a global initiative. That approval could come after separate WHO group meetings on Friday and Monday to assess whether an emergency-use listing for the AstraZeneca vaccine is warranted.
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