Health Surveillance Agency denies delaying permits for Chinese vaccine inputs

Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) has denied any delays in processing permits for the Butantan Biological Institute to import the inputs required for CoronaVac, the potential Covid-19 vaccine produced in cooperation with Chinese lab Sinovac Biotech.

The statement comes after Butantan President Dimas Covas said its permit requests, which date back to September, have yet to be granted — adding that Anvisa would have told him the green light would not come until November, which would delay São Paulo’s plan to roll out the vaccine.

Anvisa justified delays by mentioning procedural mistakes by Butantan — which reportedly included products with different delays for treatment in the same request. In order to speed up clearance, the federal government would have split the request and could give its answer within five business days.

Later in the afternoon, Anvisa signed off on the Butantan Institute’s purchase of 6 million CoronaVac doses. The institute hopes to develop another 40 million doses by the end of the year.

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