HONG KONG, BEIJING and CAJICA, Colombia – Anvisa, Brazil’s health care surveillance agency, has halted the final-stage trials for Beijing, China-based Sinovac Biotech Ltd.’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate Coronavac after a serious adverse event occurred on Oct. 29 and was communicated to the regulator. Anvisa then evaluated the data and suspended the trials after weighing the risk-benefit of continuing them in the country, it said.

CAJICA, Colombia – The Russian vaccine candidate Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, is undergoing phase III trials in Venezuela under complete secrecy.

CAJICA, Colombia – In a move to reduce bureaucratic procedures and fight backlogs, the Brazilian health care surveillance agency, Anvisa, softened its rules for the marketing authorization of class II medical devices in the Latin American country.

CAJICA, Colombia –The government of Costa Rica issued guidelines recently that will allow the country’s social security system to source the country's hospitals with ventilators produced by the faculties of the universities of the Latin American country, during the COVID-19 outbreak.

CAJICA, Colombia – Latin American countries are rushing to sign deals to gain access to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, with Brazil, the largest in the region, right in the race. Already, the country has the third most COVID-19 cases globally, behind only India and the U.S.

Bright days are ahead for China’s biopharmaceutical sector, which is getting a reset from the efforts to tackle COVID-19 through innovation and advancements. “I'm consciously optimistic about the fact that cross-border deals will continue,” Stella Xu, managing director, Quan Capital, from Shanghai, China said during a panel discussion at the Chinabio Partnering Forum.

Bright days are ahead for China’s biopharmaceutical sector, which is getting a reset from the efforts to tackle COVID-19 through innovation and advancements. “I'm consciously optimistic about the fact that cross-border deals will continue,” Stella Xu, managing director, Quan Capital, from Shanghai, China said during a panel discussion at the Chinabio Partnering Forum.