Russia to charge less for Covid vaccine, produce 1 billion doses



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A worker wearing personal protective equipment holds a tray containing unlabeled ampoules of the COVID-19 vaccine “ Gam-COVID-Vac ”, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Fund for Russian direct investment (RDIF).

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the wake of positive coronavirus vaccine news from the UK and US, Russia has said it will make its own vaccine cheaper than rivals and plans to produce 1 billion doses the next year.

“The cost of a dose of the Sputnik V vaccine for international markets will be less than $ 10,” the Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) said on Tuesday. The Russian coronavirus vaccine requires two doses.

“Thus, Sputnik V will be twice or more cheaper than foreign vaccines based on mRNA technology with similar efficiency rates. For Russian citizens, vaccination with Sputnik V will be free,” RDIF added. .

The statement appears to refer to Pfizer and BioNTech, and Moderna’s vaccine candidates, which are made from messenger RNA, or mRNA. Both have reported high efficacy rates of their vaccines in late stage trials over the past two weeks.

Pfizer and BioNTech are expected to cost around $ 20 per dose, while Moderna’s CEO said two days ago his vaccine would cost between $ 25 and $ 37 per dose, depending on the quantity ordered. Both require two doses.

Russia’s comments also come a day after British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Monday said their coronavirus vaccine was “very effective,” according to an interim analysis of late-stage clinical trials. Their vaccine does not use mRNA technology, but rather uses a viral vector approach.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which requires two doses, is estimated to cost $ 3-4 per dose.

A billion doses

Optimism about vaccine news quickly turned to the practicalities, costs and logistics of mass production and distribution.

RDIF said on Tuesday that ongoing deals with “major foreign pharmaceutical companies” meant it planned to produce enough of its vaccine “for 500 million people a year from 2021”. Since this is a two-dose vaccine, that means it aims to produce one billion doses next year.

By comparison, Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to produce up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021, while Moderna said it is on track to manufacture between 500 million and 1 billion doses globally. next year. AstraZeneca said on Monday it was making “rapid progress in manufacturing a capacity of up to 3 billion doses of vaccine in 2021 on an ongoing basis, pending regulatory approval.”

The Russian coronavirus vaccine was the first in the world to be registered, encouraging international skepticism about its effectiveness and its safety credentials, as it had not released early-stage clinical trial data nor started phase three trials at the time.

It has since shared its first interim analysis of the phase three trials and released the second interim analysis of data from the trials on Tuesday. He said the results showed the vaccine was 91.4% effective in preventing coronavirus infection after 28 days and was over 95% effective after 42 days. The trial evaluated data after there were 39 confirmed cases of coronavirus among 18,794 volunteers who received both doses of the Sputnik V vaccine or a placebo.

RDIF reiterated on Tuesday that the results of its trials would be published by the country’s Gamaleya Center team “in one of the leading international peer-reviewed medical journals,” but did not specify a timeline for it. He added that after the completion of the phase three clinical trials, it will provide access to the full clinical trial report.

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