BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil on Tuesday approved human clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine developed through Johnson
Health regulator Anvisa said it gave the green light to the study, which will see another 6,000 people in Brazil as volunteers to verify the vaccine candidate for Johnson’s pharmaceutical subsidiary.
With the world’s largest coronavirus outbreak outside the United States, Brazil has a center for massive clinical trials of possible vaccines.
Brazilian officials have promised to start generating British and Chinese vaccines within a year, but experts warn that it could take at least twice as long.
Brazil recorded 3.4 million cases of the disease through the new coronavirus and more than 108,000 similar deaths on Monday.
Latin America’s largest country has already approved 3 human trials of prospective vaccines developed through AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University, Sinovac Biotech in China and Pfizer in partnership with BioNTech.
The Chinese company Sinopharm also aims to conduct trials for a vaccine imaginable in Brazil as a component of an agreement with the southern state of Paraná, pending regulatory approval.
Paraná has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Moscow and plans to produce a Russian vaccine, which controversially has the first registered coronavirus vaccine in the world.
Reporting through Ricardo Brito; written through Jake Spring and Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing through Alex Richardson, Jason Neely and Paul Simao
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