Overview

• Anvisa issued an international call to identify manufacturers and distributors of fomepizol for the public health system, giving companies 30 days to respond.
• The agency formally contacted regulators in Argentina, Mexico, the United States, Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Japan, China, Switzerland and Australia to expedite access.
• The Health Ministry is purchasing 150,000 ampoules of pharmaceutical-grade ethanol, has a strategic stock of 4,300 ampoules in federal university hospitals, and asked PAHO for 100 donated fomepizol treatments with plans to acquire 1,000 more via its fund.
• Officials identified three potential foreign producers of fomepizol—one in India and two in the United States—while mapping 604 domestic facilities able to prepare sterile pharmaceutical ethanol as an alternative therapy.
• Surveillance data show roughly 59 notifications with about 11–12 laboratory-confirmed methanol poisonings and one confirmed death in São Paulo, with additional deaths under investigation and cases reported in São Paulo and Brasília.