Fiocruz receives delegation of World Bank executive directors

On September 6th, Fiocruz received a delegation from the World Bank Group made up of executive directors from several member countries led by the executive director for Brazil. The group, which was on a trip through Brazil, came to the Foundation to learn about its activities and, in particular, more about the Health Biotechnology Industrial Complex (Cibs) project at the Santa Cruz Campus of the Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos/Fiocruz), in Rio de Janeiro. The delegation was received by the Presidency of Fiocruz and also met with the board of Bio-Manguinhos – the meeting was accompanied by the Foundation's Attorney's Office, the Center for International Relations in Health (Cris/Fiocruz) and the Federal Attorney’s Office (AGU).

Leaders of Fiocruz and the World Bank Group at the Foundation's Moorish Castle (Photo: Luciano Simplicio)

The World Bank Group executive directors are members of its board of directors and representatives of its member countries. Throughout last week, they were in the country for discussions related to Brazil's presidency of the G20 and about the sectors and projects they support through the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

During their visit to Fiocruz, the group, made up of executive directors representing the United States, France, Pakistan, Argentina, Belgium, Kuwait, India, Cape Verde, China, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, also showed particular interest in the operation of the Brazilian Unified Health System, the SUS.

Fiocruz's Executive Board explained the importance and strategic role of Fiocruz for the SUS, in addition to the insertion of the Santa Cruz project in the national and international context. Fiocruz's chief executive officer, Juliano Lima, welcomed them and emphasized to the visitors that Fiocruz is the home of public health in Brazil. He highlighted the importance of the visit: “The World Bank has been a partner of Brazil for over 60 years and has worked with the Brazilian government to support the country in values that are very dear to Fiocruz, the sustainable development of the country, with inclusion and improvement of living conditions and reduction of inequalities among our population,” said Lima.

The executive director for Brazil and eight other countries (Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Philippines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago), Marcos Vinicius Chiliatto, commented that the group was also in Brasília, for conversations linked to Brazil's presidency of the G20, and in Salvador, where they visited social projects such as the first hospital in Brazil operated in a public-private partnership format. During the visit, he said, the delegation came into contact with the importance of the SUS for the country.

At Fiocruz, the focus was on possible support from the IFC in expanding vaccine production capacity: “The visit is of great importance for the executive directors representing the bank's member countries to get to know Brazil and the main operations supported, including Fiocruz. They were able to not only learn about the SUS and its complexity, but also learn more about

vaccine production and the Foundation's technical, innovation and research capacity first-hand,” said Chiliatto, who added: “We stayed in Washington and it is one thing to learn about a project by reading a document and another thing entirely to be here, talking and meeting the people leading the project.”

The director of Bio-Manguinhos, Maurício Zuma, gave an institutional presentation of Cibs, providing details of the new campus of the industrial complex in Santa Cruz. He explained that the complex will become the “largest vaccine production center in Latin America”: “Importantly, it will increase our capacity fivefold and allow our health system to have more vaccines and autonomy, in addition to allowing us to increase our exports to United Nations agencies, such as PAHO and UNICEF, further enabling us to provide more equitable access to vaccines to the Global South,” said Zuma.

The World Bank Group delegation was able to visit the Moorish Castle and the Rare Works Library, as well as the Bio-Manguinhos facilities, where the meeting was held. Fiocruz's Deputy Vice President of Management and Institutional Development, Priscila Ferraz, gave an institutional presentation of Fiocruz, presenting all its complexity: “This project is part of Fiocruz's perspective of action in global health in the field of production and innovation, which creates a structure especially within the scope of South-South cooperation and is key to achieving one of the goals of our new industrial policy, i.e. to have 70% national autonomy in the production of health supplies,” said Priscila.

Santa Cruz Campus

The Health Biotechnology Industrial Complex (Cibs) was designed with the aim of expanding the supply of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals, seeking to meet not only public health programs, but also the external demand of the United Nations. The plant will have an estimated production capacity of 120 million vials of vaccines and biopharmaceuticals per year, in different presentations (number of doses per vial), and will serve primarily to meet the demands of the Brazilian population through the Unified Health System.

Its construction will support and underpin the expansion of the National Immunization Program (PNI), further representing a milestone in the strategic initiatives of the Ministry of Health. The future Santa Cruz Campus will house the New Final Processing Center (NCPFI), as well as areas dedicated to quality assurance and control and others necessary for the full operation of the complex.

The resources provided by the PAC will fund part of the Cibs' work, together with external resources. Learn more.