The infrastructure of the Butantan Institute for the production of biologicals will receive an investment of R$ 54 million from the Ministry of Health for the purchase of new equipment and infrastructure improvements.
The funding will be provided through the Program for the Development of the Health Industrial Complex (Procis), which aims to strengthen public laboratories and the infrastructure for production and innovation in health.
The agreement was signed in São Paulo (SP) by the Minister of Health, Ricardo Barros, and the president of Butantan, Jorge Kalil.
“The incentive will be used not only for the modernization of Butantan’s manufacturing park but also so that we can continue to be a reference in the production of vaccines and serums for the whole world. More and more, the immigration that occurs between various countries will require more and more vaccines, and we want to be prepared to supply our market, and also to be exporters of vaccines to the whole world,” emphasized the Minister of Health, Ricardo Barros.
The amount of the agreement is about 50% higher than what was allocated in the last eight years. The total allocated by the Ministry of Health to the laboratory’s infrastructure between 2008 and 2016 was R$ 36.3 million.Vaccines and Antibodies
With the new funding, Butantan will be able to ensure the production of immunobiologicals, in addition to contributing to obtaining the Good Manufacturing Practices Certificate from Anvisa in its biological lines, with a focus on the production of vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.
Another benefit will be the completion of the production of the Pentavalent vaccine, which will include doses for immunization against tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, and haemophilus influenza B, for flu. The vaccine is about to be registered with the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and will bring benefits in storage, logistics, and operation, as there will be five types of immunization in just one product.
The Ministry of Health allocated more than R$ 1.5 billion to the Butantan Institute for the purchase of vaccines and serums in 2016. This amount represents about 40% of the total invested by the National Immunization Program (PNI), which distributes about 300 million immunobiologicals annually to provide the entire population of the country with all vaccines recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ministry also supports the state laboratory in research, with R$ 100 million allocated for the last phase of the dengue vaccine, for example.
The Butantan Institute provides technologies exclusively to the Ministry of Health and other entities of the Unified Health System (SUS), focusing on the supply of serums and the following vaccines: triple (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) DTP, double (diphtheria and tetanus) for adults and children, trivalent seasonal influenza, Hepatitis A, HPV, Hepatitis B, and Vero rabies.
Source: Ministry of Health