Brazil To Produce Low-Cost Measles & Rubella Vaccine For Poor Countries
Please note that we are not authorised to provide any investment advice. The content on this page is for information purposes only.
Brazil’s top biomedical research centre, the government-funded Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, has announced plans to begin producing an affordable measles and rubella vaccine for developing countries, becoming only the second country in the world – behind India – to produce such vaccines at lower costs.
Brazil’s top biomedical research centre, the government-funded Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, has announced plans to begin producing an affordable measles and rubella vaccine for developing countries, becoming only the second country in the world – behind India – to produce such vaccines at lower costs.
The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, which recently received a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said that the vaccine would be produced specifically for exports; while development would take place at its Bio-Manguinhos facility in Rio de Janeiro.
The Brazilian Health Ministry has also pledged to invest a further $727 million into the construction of a state-of-the pharmaceutical plant at Bio-Manguinhos, hoping to produce said vaccine by 2017.
“This plant will generate employment, revenue, know-how, research and technological innovation in this country,” said Brazil’s health minister Alexandre Padilha, as quoted by AFP, on Monday.
[quote]”The agreement which we are signing provides more investments and buying guarantees, which makes it possible to export at the lowest cost,” he added.[/quote]Measles kills 158,000 people a year in the world, mostly children under the age of five. Rubella, also called German measles, can cause serious consequences to pregnant women and their babies.
Bio-Manguinhos, which has a track record of making combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, will produce 30 million doses per year of the new measles/rubella vaccine to supply developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The new vaccine is expected to be sold for just $0.54 a dose.
Brazil is following in the footsteps of other emerging nations, like India and China, who have invested in biomedical technologies to help supply vaccines and other medicines to developing nations at a lower cost than the ones produced by the pharmaceutical industries in developed countries.
Related: BRICS: The World’s New Benefactors?
Related: How India Dented Big Pharma’s IP Monopoly: Arjun Jayadev & Joseph Stiglitz
Related: India To Provide $5.4 Billion In Free Drugs To Citizens
Only one other lab in the world, the Serum Institute of India, produces a similar vaccine. The vaccine is used in Brazil’s national immunisation program, but was not adopted in many of the developing countries, due to its cost and the limited presence of mumps.
According to the Xinhua News Agency, the Brazil biomedical facility is also currently working on a vaccine against dengue fever.
