Butantan-Chik vaccine, developed with the pharmaceutical company Valneva, will be manufactured in Brazil and may be incorporated into the SUS
The (National Health Surveillance Agency) authorized this Monday (May 4, 2026) the manufacture of the vaccine against chikungunya by the Butantan Institute. The vaccine, called Butantan-Chik, was developed in partnership with the French-Austrian pharmaceutical company Valneva.
With the decision, the vaccine formulated and packaged in Brazil is released for use in the country and may be definitively incorporated into the SUS (Unified Health System). The target audience is people aged 18 to 59.
Anvisa had already approved the vaccine in April 2025, but with production restricted to Valneva factories abroad. The new opinion makes Butantan official as a national manufacturing site, maintaining quality, safety and efficacy parameters.
The director of the Butantan Institute, Esper Kallás, stated that nationalization will reduce costs for public coffers. “By carrying out most of the manufacturing process, the Butantan Institute, as a public institution, will be able to deliver the vaccine at a lower and more accessible price”these.
VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS
The effectiveness of the vaccine was confirmed in a study with 4,000 volunteers in the United States. According to results published in the scientific journal The Lancet in 2023, 98.9% of participants produced neutralizing antibodies. The adverse effects reported were mild and moderate, such as headaches and body aches, fatigue and fever.
Butantan-Chik had already been applied in the SUS since February 2026, in the format of a pilot project by the Ministry of Health aimed at municipalities with a high incidence of the disease. Around 23,000 Brazilians have already received the dose in the campaign.
According to Juan Carlos Jaramillo, medical director at Valneva, local production is a “marco crucial” to offer the vaccine to at-risk populations in Latin America. The vaccine also has approval in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom.
IMPACTS OF THE DISEASE
The Butantan vaccine with Valneva was the first registered against chikungunya in the world. Data from PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) indicate that the disease will affect around 620,000 people globally in 2025.
In Brazil, the Ministry of Health reported more than 127 thousand cases and 125 deaths last year.
Transmitted by mosquito Aedes aegypti –the same vector as dengue and zika–, chikungunya causes sudden high fever and intense joint pain. The main consequence is chronic joint pain, which can last from months to years.
A study by UFRN (Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte) shows that patients with the chronic form of the disease are 13 times more likely to develop depression and 76 times more likely to have mobility problems. In the USA, research from George Washington University found that 1 in 8 diagnosed patients reported persistent pain for 3 years.
Despite progress in immunization, the Ministry of Health reinforces the need to maintain the fight against the mosquito vector, with the elimination of pockets of standing water in tires, plant pots and water tanks.
This text was originally published by Comunicação Instituto Butantan, on May 4, 2026. The content is free for republication, the source is cited, it was adapted to the Poder360 standard and received additional information.
