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Brazil to produce vaccines for export only
Criado em 28/10/13 19h22
e atualizado em 29/10/13 08h11
Por Flávia Villela
Fonte:Agência Brasil
Rio de Janeiro – The double rubella-measles vaccine will be produced by Brazil, for export purposes only, and will be purchased by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which will give them away to poor countries, chiefly in Africa. The project entails the construction of a factory for the production of vaccines and medicines at the Biomanguinhos science center, which belongs to the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, known as Fiocruz. The project will cost the Ministry of Health, to which Fiocruz is linked, $730 million.
Brazil’s health minister Alexandre Padilha declared on Monday (October 28), “This factory will create jobs, generate income, promote knowledge, research and technological innovation in this country. It will also demand more quality from the country’s production, which will make the quality of Fiocruz’s vaccines and other medicines better and better.”
He also said that the exportation of 30 million doses is expected to begin in 2017, at the world’s lowest price: $0.54; the partnership agreement establishes that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is to invest $1.1 million in developing the vaccine as well as fostering its clinical research. The announcement was made during the 9th Grand Challenges Meeting, which gathers researches from all across the world at a hotel in Rio de Janeiro to come up with innovative health-care solutions.
Padilha mentioned that, although Brazil has already eradicated both measles and rubella, the needs of the world are urgent: “Around 150 thousand people die every year all around the world victims of measles. After producing this vaccine, we’ll be able to take up the global market – first with this vaccine, and then we can open the doors to other types of vaccines produced here in Brazil.”
Today, Brazil exports several types of vaccines to 75 countries. Out of the 25 types available in Brazil’s Public Unified Health Care System (“SUS”), 96% are manufactured in Brazil. Fiocruz’s president Paulo Gadelha explained that the new factory will quadruple its output: “We’ll increase our production capacity, which is currently around 150 million vaccine doses per year to 650 million doses per year.”
He went on to say that the fact that Fiocruz already produces a triple vaccine against mumps, measles and rubella will make the production of the new vaccine easier: “But every composition is a new vaccine and poses new challenges. So it’s a new product that will be entirely developed with national technology and competence, meeting a demand that’s crucial in a global perspective.”
The triple viral vaccine was not included in the agreement, as mumps is not a fatal disease in most of the countries that need the rubella-measles vaccine.
Trevor Mendel, president of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, explained that an Indian laboratory is currently the sole manufacturer of this type of vaccine, and that the partnership with Brazil is key to make the access to it available to all. Today, each dose costs around $0.57. The price is expected to rise over the upcoming years.
Edited by: Valéria Aguiar / Lícia Marques
Translated by: Fabrício Ferreira
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