MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th June, 2020) Joao Doria, the governor of Brazil's Sao Paulo state, announced on Thursday that Instituto Butantan, a leading bio research center, signed a contract on the production of COVID-19 vaccine with China's Sinoval Biotech company.
"Today is a historic day for Sao Paulo and Brazil, as well as for world science. Instituto Butantan has signed an agreement with pharmaceutical giant Sinovac Biotech to produce a coronavirus vaccine," Doria said, as quoted by the website of the local government.
According to the authorities, the Chinese company is moving to the final stage of clinical trials � testing on volunteers, which will also be conducted in Brazil. About 9,000 people will participate in the study, and if the vaccine proves to be effective, deliveries will begin by June 2021.
In line with Johns Hopkins University's data, the coronavirus global case tally surpasses 7.3 million, with over 416,000 deaths and more than 3.4 million recoveries. Brazil comes second on the global tally of coronavirus cases after the United States, which has recorded about 2 million COVID-19 patients. Currently, the country has 772,416 COVID-19 cases and 39,680 related fatalities.
