The “Inés Joekes” Auditorium, at the Institute of Chemistry of Unicamp, hosted the lecture Challenges for the development of vaccines in Brazil, delivered by Gustavo Mendes Lima Santos, a pharmacist, historian, and master in Pharmacology and Toxicology. The speaker discussed obstacles and opportunities in the field of vaccine biotechnology.

Currently, Mendes is a specialist in Regulation and Health Surveillance at the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) and Director of Regulatory Affairs, Quality Control, and Clinical Studies at the Butantan Foundation. His experience allowed him to present examples and innovation models applied at the Butantan Institute. In his talk, in addition to addressing the biotechnological and regulatory challenges faced by Brazil in developing new vaccines, he highlighted the historical and technical aspects necessary for establishing a robust national biotechnological infrastructure and discussed emerging opportunities in the current scenario — especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought to light the importance of innovation and autonomy in vaccine production.

“What stood out most was the speaker’s technical knowledge and the set of information about conducting each stage necessary in the development and registration of a new health technology,” says Dr. Pedro Paulo Corbi, professor at the Institute of Chemistry of Unicamp and principal investigator at CancerThera.

Dr. Maria Carolina Santos Mendes, a nutritionist and associate researcher at CancerThera, highlighted the presentation of the regulatory aspects that must be considered from the very beginning of a research project and the description of the Butantan Institute’s innovation model. “It’s an inspiring example of how to approach innovation in the sector,” she says.