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This new partnership between the health regulatory authorities of the EU and Brazil is an important step towards mutual recognition and regulatory harmonisation to improve human and animal health.

The agreements will bolster India's arsenal of drugs to battle its catastrophic second wave of the pandemic, which has led to an acute shortage of coronavirus medicines including remdesivir and tocilizumab.

Sinopharm received emergency use listing from the World Health Organization (WHO) last Friday, making it eligible for the COVAX programme and bolstering Beijing's push for a bigger role in inoculating the world.

That was up from 1.4 billion doses announced in March.

Western pharmaceutical companies, many of which have received government support to develop vaccines, strongly oppose the transfer of intellectual property to make them.

The solution is to ease restrictions on exporting shots and build more production capacity.

The talks also are likely to focus on a waiver that is significantly narrower in scope and shorter in duration than the one initially proposed by India and South Africa last October.

European countries distanced themselves on Friday from a proposal backed by U.S. President Joe Biden to waive patent rights on coronavirus vaccines.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday supported a proposal to waive World Trade Organization intellectual property (IP) rules, which would allow poorer countries to produce vaccine for themselves.

The main challenge to raising production of COVID-19 vaccines is how to quickly and effectively transfer technology, Germany's health minister said Friday, reiterating Berlin's opposition to a U.S. proposal to waive patent protection.

A potential WTO waiver of patent and trade secret protections for Covid-19 vaccines would leave pharmaceutical companies with limited legal avenues to recover costs.

“The main issue for solidarity is the distribution of doses.”

Biden's proposal angered pharmaceutical companies. Firms working on vaccines have reported sharp revenue and profit gains during the crisis.

União Quimica's facility in São Paulo has been certified by Anvisa for good production practices and the vaccine will be made for export to countries that have approved it.

Ten WTO meetings in seven months have failed to produce a breakthrough, with 60 proposal sponsors from emerging economies, backed by a chorus of campaign groups, Nobel laureates and former world leaders.