BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s health regulator Anvisa said on Wednesday it was reviewing a request for the emergency use of the COVID-19 single-shot vaccine developed by Chinese laboratory CanSino Biologics.
Anvisa said it received the request late on Tuesday from Belcher Farmaceutica, the Brazilian representative of CanSino, and it would take up to seven days to make a decision, if the papers are in order.
“The Cansino vaccine, effective with just one dose, is being used in China. China is committed to continue and expand its vaccine partnership with Brazil,” China’s ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, tweeted on Wednesday.
If authorized, CanSino’s would be the second Chinese COVID-19 vaccine to be used in Brazil, along with the CoronaVac shot developed by Sinovac Biotech in partnership with the Butantan biomedical institute in Sao Paulo state.
Five of every six COVID-19 shots administered in Brazil through April came from the Sinovac-Butantan partnership, but production has sputtered due to delayed shipments from China.
Butantan said on Tuesday that China will reduce a shipment of pharmaceutical ingredients for producing vaccines next week, providing enough to produce 5 million CoronaVac shots instead of the 7 million.
(Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Writing by Jamie McGeever; Editing by Richard Chang)
