The head of the Butantan Institute, a Brazilian biomedical research centre, is having talks about supplying Argentina, Colombia, and the Pan American Health Organization with CoronaVac, a potential vaccine against the Covid-19 virus developed in China, Agência Brasil reports.

The Brazilian state-run news agency quotes Butantan Institute Director Dimas Covas as telling a Brazilian legislative committee overseeing the anti-pandemic efforts that he believes his institute and the developer of the vaccine, Sinovac Biotech Ltd, can together become a big supplier of vaccine to Latin America.

The institute is leading the clinical trials of CoronaVac in Brazil, which began last month.

If the vaccine proves effective, the Butantan Institute is ready to begin producing it in October, and distributing it in Brazil in January, Agência Brasil says.