Brazil’s President Bolsonaro Says No Deal With Sinovac for COVID-19 Vaccine

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro announced Wednesday that his government will not purchase a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Beijing-based Sinovac, just one day after the country’s health minister announced it would be placing an order.

Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello said Tuesday that the country’s immunization program would purchase 46 million doses of CoronaVac, Sinovac’s vaccine candidate, pending approval from Brazil’s regulatory authority ANVISA (Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária).

But Bolsonaro, who announced the change of plan on social media, said the Brazilian people “will not be anyone’s guinea pig," and noted that the vaccine is still in testing.

In July, Sinovac received approval from ANVISA to launch a phase 3 study of CoronaVac in 9,000 healthcare professionals across 12 clinical sites in Brazil, based on phase 2 data showing the candidate induced neutralizing antibodies in 90 percent of participants.

Brazil has reported almost 5.3 million COVID-19 infections during the pandemic, and it is hosting numerous trials of potential vaccines, including Johnson & Johnson’s Ad26.COV2-S, AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 and Pfizer/BioNTech’s BNT162b2. — Jason Scott