The Butantan Institute – the largest producer of vaccines and serums in Latin America and the main producer of immunobiologicals in Brazil – is preparing to enter a new phase. “We are creating new laboratories and units, improving our regulatory and clinical testing side. We want the golden dream: for any researcher or scientist with a great idea to encounter as few obstacles as possible to make it a reality,” says infectious disease doctor Esper Kallás, director of Butantan.
A major project of the institute is the development of a vaccine platform that uses RNA. “This is strategic,” says Kallás, who is also a professor at the Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at the USP School of Medicine. In addition to allowing the production of vaccines in a few months, RNA can be used “to induce the production of antibodies against germs and even cancer,” he said in this episode of Side B. “It is also possible to use it to correct genetic defects.”
Amid the recent dengue outbreak in the country, Butantan intends to apply for registration of the first Brazilian vaccine against dengue, which is in phase 3 of the clinical trial, with Anvisa in the second half of this year; and have it ready for use in 2025.
In parallel, there is expectation for the release of the first vaccine against Chikungunya in the world, in partnership with the French-Austrian biotechnology company Valneva, in addition to projects to improve the vaccine against Influenza, from trivalent to tetravalent, and a prototype of an immunizer against influenza poultry industry, which should start phase 1 in the second half of the year.
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