29 June 2020 

Brazil has entered an agreement worth $127m to manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine candidate which was developed by the University of Oxford and licensed to AstraZeneca. The deal will allow the Brazilian government’s public health institute, the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), to produce up to 100 million doses of the vaccine, with an initial target to manufacture more than 30 million doses in December this year and January next year.

The World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi, the vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) have together launched the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX) initiative to enable equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines. The partners are seeking $18.1bn in funding to obtain two billion doses of vaccine next year.

China’s military has secured approval to use a Covid-19 vaccine candidate developed by CanSino Biologics and the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology in the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, according to Reuters. The approval is said to be based on promising trial data.