Fiocruz signs agreement to resume BCG vaccine production in the country

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) signed an agreement with the Ataulfo ​​de Paiva Foundation (FAP) to try to facilitate the resumption of national production of BCG vaccines. The term of maintenance and support for the foundation seeks to recover the capacity and operating conditions of the FAP, so that it can resume producing the immunizer. On the side of Fiocruz, the agreement signed last week involves the Brazilian Institute of Molecular Biology (IBMP), a partnership between the federal foundation and the government of Paraná, and the Institute of Technology in Immunobiologicals (Bio-Manguinhos), linked to Fiocruz. FAP, on the other hand, is a private institution located in the São Cristóvão neighborhood, in the northern part of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and was the only Brazilian laboratory that produced the vaccine. However, it stopped its production more than a year ago, after being banned by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). Since then, the Ministry of Health has imported the vaccine to ensure the country’s supply of BCG, a vaccine that protects against tuberculosis. With the agreement, the IBMP becomes the maintainer of the FAP and assumes its institutional control, being responsible for validating the board and the deliberative and fiscal councils. The new board of the FAP is already going to start negotiating the foundation’s debts. In 30 days, it must present an institutional and economic-financial recovery plan. In addition, IBMP must invest to complete a new FAP factory in the municipality of Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense. The forecast is that the new unit will only come into operation in two or three years. Spain While the works are not finished, Fiocruz must negotiate an agreement with a Spanish vaccine factory. The idea is that this industrial plant in Spain will temporarily produce the FAP vaccine, starting in the second half of 2024. “It is not a question of importing vaccine from another manufacturer. It is the same FAP BCG vaccine that, instead of being produced at the São Cristóvão plant, would be produced at a contracted factory in Spain. We would just be temporarily transferring production to a new location, until the Xerém plant is finished”, explains the director-president of IBMP, Pedro Barbosa. Anvisa still needs to inspect the Spanish factory to authorize the production of immunizers on site.

Agência Brasil