Chikungunya vaccine gets regulatory nod

Anvisa, Brazil's health regulator, authorized local manufacturing of the world's first chikungunya vaccine on Monday, a decision that could bring the shot into the country's SUS universal public health system and reshape how Latin America's largest nation confronts a mosquito-borne disease that has no specific treatment and can leave patients crippled for years.

The São Paulo-based Butantan biological institute developed the IXCIQ vaccine in collaboration with Franco-Austrian pharmaceutical company Valneva. The immunizer had already received Anvisa registration in April last year, but production was restricted to Valneva's European facilities.