Amid vaccine shortage, Russia says it will produce 200 million Sputnik V – telam

Amid the shortage of vaccines to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Russia announced on Monday that it would produce 200 million doses of its Sputnik V in India, while the one developed by British pharmacist AstraZeneca with the University of Oxford has announced that its inoculator is 79% effective after trials in the United States, which it says will make it part of its schedule.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reached an agreement with Indian pharmaceutical group Virchow Biotech to produce the vaccine, in a statement saying: “The technology transfer will be completed in the second quarter of 2021, to be followed by large-scale commercial production “,

RDIF, which has partially funded the development of the vaccine and is negotiating production agreements abroad. according to the AFP news agency.

Sputnik V was initially greeted with skepticism abroad, but due to its over 90% effectiveness, it is now licensed in 54 countries, covering 1,400 million people, the RDIF recalled.

This agreement joins that announced Friday with another Indian pharmaceutical company, Stelis, to produce 200 million additional doses, and another for 100 million doses signed in November with the Indian company Hetero.

“Vaccine alliances are the only way to overcome the pandemic; the world is continuing its fight against the coronavirus and we are seeing increasing interest in Sputnik V, ”said RDIF director Kirill Dmitriev.

In this context, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that he will be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

“Vaccination is, of course, a voluntary choice of each person, a personal decision of each one,” Putin, 68, said during a video conference with officials. “In particular, I intend to do it myself tomorrow,” he added.

Putin does not specify which vaccine to apply among the three that have been approved in Russia, although he once said that Sputnik V, which is in two doses, was “the best in the world”, after that for its reliability and reliability. greater efficiency 90% was validated in February by the prestigious British scientific journal The Lancet.

Since then, more and more countries, including European powers like Germany, have expressed interest in this vaccine, and others like Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have already ordered batches.

Moscow wishes to diversify the sources of production of its own vaccine, because its capacities are still limited and its priority is devoted to supplying the population.

Putin said 6.3 million people had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine in Russia, and more than 4.3 million had already been inoculated with two doses, a modest figure for a population of 146 million.

“Today we can say with confidence that Russian vaccines are absolutely reliable and safe; it is a total success of our scientists and specialists, ”he noted.

For his part, Russian Health Minister Mijil Murashko said a commission from the European regulatory body will arrive in Moscow next month to assess tests on Sputnik V.

“On April 10, a group of experts from the European Medicines Agency will familiarize themselves (and) review the clinical trials that have been carried out in our country,” he said.

Likewise, Putin denounced yesterday’s “strange” statements from a European official who said the bloc does not need the Russian immunizer, in a new exchange of statements that illustrates the tensions around the homologation of Sputnik V in the European Union, after Russia has already accused Brussels of having deliberately slowed down the process.

During a remote meeting on vaccination, broadcast on television, the Russian president dismissed the criticisms expressed by European Commissioner Thierry Breton, of pharmaceutical companies or those of European citizens, ”Poutin stressed.

European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer stressed that no negotiations were underway to buy doses of Sputnik V but that “the door was not closed forever”.

At the same time, the US government announced that the vaccine developed by British pharmacist AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford would be included in its campaign if approved by the relevant agencies, the House spokeswoman said on Monday. Blanche, Jen Psaki.

“Any vaccine approved, we will integrate it fairly into our distribution process,” Psaki said at a press conference when asked if Joe Biden’s government plans to distribute AstraZeneca if authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. , in English).

Psaki added that there was a shortage of vaccine supply in the United States and around the world, and recalled that the coronavirus pandemic is still ongoing and new variants of the disease are unpredictable.

A recent study in the United States found that the AstraZeneca vaccine is 79% effective in preventing infections and 100% effective in severe or critical cases.

The European Medicines Agency said it had found no relationship between the administration of the AstraZeneca vaccine and cases of thrombosis in inoculated people.

The research followed the decision of several European countries, including Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland and Norway, to suspend the vaccine use following reports of several cases of blood clotting.