Fiocruz and AstraZeneca make a commitment for API acquisition in 2022

Brazil’s Fiocruz has signed a joint declaration of commitment with UK pharma major AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) for the acquisition of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) with the goal of producing 60 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine (recombinant) in order to make up the deliveries of the Foundation for 2022.

The commitment signed by the institutions aims to guarantee wide availability of vaccine doses for the first semester. With the guarantee of the imported ingredient, Fiocruz will be able to deliver, through the Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz), 120 million doses between January and June next year, of which 60 million with the national API and 60 million with the new agreement.

The guaranteed availability of this amount will allow the Ministry of Health (MS), depending on the epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Brazil until then, to establish different protocols of vaccination and to use the doses to implement booster vaccination whenever it is necessary.