The United Kingdom Embassy and Fiocruz strengthen their cooperation for a vaccine

The United Kingdom ambassador in Brazil, Peter Wilson, visited the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) on March 5 for a meeting with the president of the institution, Nísia Trindade Lima, and to visit the Immunobiological Technology Institute (Bio-Manguinhos) plant that is producing the Covid-19 Fiocruz vaccine.

Photo: Pedro Paulo Gonçalves

“I greatly admire the work you have you been doing, and we are here to know how we can help”, explained the Ambassador. Fiocruz president stated that Fiocruz has “a historical partnership with the United Kingdom and the pandemic has highlighted the strategic importance of this scientific cooperation”.

The main point discussed was the vaccine against COVID-19. The United Kingdom Embassy has supported Fiocruz, the Oxford University and AstraZeneca since the early days of vaccine prospection, in terms of regulation as well as regarding the technology transfer to produce the vaccine. 

In addition to the Ambassador, the meeting was also attended by the General Consul of the United Kingdom in Rio de Janeiro, Simon Wood, the Embassy’s Deputy Head of Mission, Liz Davidson, and the Director of the Oxford-brazil Vaccine Group, Sue Ann Costa Clemens. 

Vaccines of the Covax consortium arrive at Fiocruz

Fiocruz president embraced the occasion of the visit of representatives of the United Kingdom Embassy to sign the contract to receive 3.8 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax Initiative, a program of the World Health Organization (WHO) to distribute vaccines to low-income countries.

The agreement was signed between the Ministry of Health and the WHO. Fiocruz has been given the technical responsibility of receiving the vaccines to check for the integrity and quality, as it has already done with imported doses received from the Serum Institute in India. The Ministry of Health is yet to confirm the delivery date for the Covax Initiative vaccines, but it is expected to take place in March.