Coronavirus: Richmond laboratory seeks to produce Sputnik V vaccine in Argentina

The laboratory Richmond confirmed today that he seeks to produce the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus in Argentina. The company published a letter in which it anticipated the alliance between Gamaleya Institute to start with local manufacturing. Since Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) confirmed to THE NATION the agreement.

Argentina has received batches of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, which was developed by the Gamaleya Institute, following an agreement between the two governments.

The agreement between the laboratory and Russia for Sputnik

“We inform you that the day of the date on which protocol of agreement Come in Management company of the Russian direct investment fund, which represents National Gamaleya Research Institute in Epidemiology and Microbiology, and my client in order to promote cooperation between the parties in order to obtain, in the short term, the manufacture of a vaccine against the virus called Covid-19 which is produced in Argentina ”, indicated in the press release from the laboratory.

Similarly, as specified in the communication disseminated, the firm will participate in “potential development” Hetero Labs Limited, a laboratory based in India, with which Richmond maintains “a strategic alliance of more than 25 years”.

The understanding agreement was signed in the city of Moscow between Tagir Sitdekov, representative of the Russian Fund for Direct Investment, and the president of the Richmond laboratory, Marcelo Figueiras.

Meanwhile, the president of the Richmond lab, Marcelo Figueiras, was cautious and clarified that this was still a first deal. “A preliminary agreement has been signed for the construction of a vaccine plant in Argentina which includes Sputnik V. Although this is preliminary, we have to communicate it due to the obligation of the regulation of the Securities Commission”, a he said in dialogue with Radio Miter.

“It depends on how the topic is broached and how the discussions go on, the times will be; our partner in India has already done the technology transfer to manufacture there and these months solved the problems that exist with that, ”he explained.

“If we do the final process, it will be faster, but in any case, it’s a process of at least a year. It is not a question of creating expectations now, but for tomorrow of not having to wait for vaccines arriving from abroad, but to have a local production that is in addition to what already exists in Argentina ”, he concluded in this regard.

The Richmond laboratory has a production facility in the Municipality of Pilar in Buenos Aires and recently launched an investment plan of $ 80 million projected for the next five years.

At the beginning of February, Kirill Dmitriev, director general of RDIF, had declared at a virtual press conference that Argentina could produce the Sputnik V vaccine. In this context, he had also indicated that it would “anticipate production” in the countries including “Contracts with certain producers”. However, at the beginning of the month, the president Alberto Fernandez He visited the Richmond laboratory factory in Pilar where he and Figueiras toured the facilities.

THE NATION

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