Rio lab to produce Brazil's first vaccine for export

10/29/2013 - 08h13

Brazil's Minister of Health, Alexandre Padilha, on Monday signed an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the production of a double vaccine against measles and rubella exclusively for export. The aim is for Brazil to export at least 30 million doses of the new vaccine in the coming years.

'This partnership will lead to other vaccines being produced in Brazil, which will generate jobs and revenue for the country,' said the minister.

The new vaccine will be produced by the laboratory Bio-Manguinhos, of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro. Artur Couto, the head of the laboratory, says that the vaccine will be sold at low cost to the United Nations, which will then distribute it in developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Currently, there is only one laboratory which produces this type of vaccine, based in India. Tests will begin in mid 2014 in four African countries, one of which will be Mozambique.

Bio-Manguinhos also produces the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine, widely used in vaccination campaigns in Brazil. According to Padilha, measles and rubella were eradicated in Brazil following vaccination programs in 2000 and 2009 respectively.