BRASILIA (Reuters) – 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.
Also on Friday, 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.
Brazil, which is in the midst of the world’s second deadliest outbreak of COVID-19 after the United States, has thus far only authorized AstraZeneca vaccine and another developed by China’s SinoVac for emergency use.
Reporting by Ricardo Brito; Writing by Jake Spring and Aurora Ellis