Sputnik V: Russia negotiates with Argentine companies on …

The managing director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, assured this Tuesday during a press conference with the Argentinian media that currently Negotiations take place with two Argentine companies for the local production of the Sputnik V vaccine, the results of which were published in the last hours by The Lancet magazine.

“We have been discussing the terms of the contract for some time, we hope to be able to conclude negotiations soon with these two companies and be able to generate them (the vaccines) from Argentina for Latin America,” said Dmitriev. Although he did not want to mention who these companies are, “because it is not correct to do so in advance”, he referred to the joint clinical trial between Gamaleya and AstraZeneca to improve the effectiveness of the Oxford vaccine, which is weaker than Russian.

“In cooperation, we can increase the efficiency of AstraZeneca by 72%; We spoke with different producers of AstraZeneca in Argentina to produce this compound vaccine. We have spoken during this month and we plan for the next three months to do production if we get the deal, ”Dmitriev said.

As he explained, there are several producers in Argentina who are trained for this task. One of them, it has been demonstrated in recent months, is the Argentine company mAbxience, which is the one that manufactures the vaccine originating in Great Britain at its headquarters in Garin. “Maybe we can announce the deal this month. We saw the equipment and the know-how“Said Dmitriev.

At the conference, the chairman of the Russian Fund admitted that Gamaleya and the associated laboratories that produce Sputnik V in other countries have “several weeks late “. “We are increasing the intensity of production in India, Brazil, China and Korea. And we believe that we can work on par with Argentina,” he said.

The aim, as has been done in these countries, is to generate a full technology transfer so that the whole production circle takes place in one place.

Vaccine management in Argentina

During his conversation with the media, Dmitriev highlighted the work of the government Alberto Fernández “to achieve the best results for the people of Argentina”, recalling that “most countries do not have access to any of the vaccines”.

He also praised the country for obtaining vaccines from other producers, because “the pandemic requires speed and diligence”. “You have to get different vaccines and the Argentine government has already done that,” he noted.

Asked about the choice of Argentina as the first Latin American country to receive Sputnik V, the director of RDIF spoke of the quality of the professionals of Anmat and the real interest in the Russian vaccine: “Argentina has scientists who understand the adenovirus platform we are using, they know it’s safe”, he stressed.

Soon, the Russian spokesman said, Angat officials will visit Sputnik V production plants in India and Korea “to review production methods and quality.”

Sputnik V

On Monday, The Lancet magazine published an analysis of clinical trials of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V which shows that it is 91.6% effective against covid-19 in its symptomatic manifestations. Preliminary results consider that the vaccine, administered in two doses, “showed great efficacy” and was well tolerated by volunteers over the age of 18 who participated in the final stage of the trials.

Another study conducted on more than 2,000 adults over 60 years has shown that the vaccine has in them an efficiency of 91.8%. In this subgroup, the drug was well tolerated and safety data from 1369 of these elderly people showed that the most common side effects were flu symptoms.

Dmitriev pointed out that Sputnik V is “one of the best in the world: there are only three vaccines with vaccines with yields of over 90% and the logistics are easier”.