Chinese drugmaker Sinopharm Group Co. Ltd and the authorities in the Brazilian state of Parana will soon ask permission to begin what would be the second clinical trial in Brazil of a potential Chinese vaccine against the Covid-19 virus, Reuters reports.

The proposal will be submitted to the Brazilian federal regulator, Anvisa, in the next two weeks, the news agency quotes the head of the Parana Technology Institute, Jorge Callado, as saying.

This month Reuters quoted Qiu Dongxu, a co-founder of another Chinese developer of vaccines, CanSino Biologics Inc., as saying his company was in talks about holding clinical trials of another potential vaccine in Brazil, Chile, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Last week the Brazilian state-run news agency, Agência Brasil, reported that clinical trials of yet another potential vaccine, CoronaVac, developed by yet another Chinese company, Sinovac Biotech Ltd, had begun in Brazil.