The Russian Direct Investment Fund and Laboratorios Richmond SACIF pharmaceutical company announced the production of the first batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in Argentina.
Argentina has become the first country in Latin America to start the production of Sputnik V. RDIF and partners facilitated the technology transfer to Laboratorios Richmond. The first batch will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center for the quality control. Full-scale production of the vaccine is due to start in June.
Argentina has become the first country in Latin America to officially register Sputnik V. The vaccine was registered in the country under the emergency use authorization procedure and vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine started on December, 29 2020.
Sputnik V produced in Argentina could be exported to countries of Central and Latin America at a later stage.
Also, RDIF and Turkey’s Viscoran İlaç pharmaceutical company have agreed to cooperate on production of the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus Sputnik V in the country.
To date Viscoran İlaç has carried out necessary studies for localization of the product and aims to launch the production in the country in the upcoming months at several facilities.
As part of the agreement with RDIF Viscoran İlaç provides assistance in establishing partnerships with other leading local pharmaceutical producers. Technology transfer is currently being finalized with CinnaGen İlaç company, while negotiations with two other production facilities are in process in order to increase the overall capacity.
RDIF and Egypt’s Minapharm, the regional leader in recombinant DNA technology, and its Berlin-based subsidiary ProBioGen AG announce the agreement to produce over 40 million doses per year of the world’s first registered vaccine against COVID-19, Sputnik V.
The parties intend to commence technology transfer immediately. The rollout of the vaccine is expected in 3Q 2021.
RDIF and Minapharm will initially supply over 40 million doses per year. Production will take place in Minapharm’s biotech facility in Cairo for global distribution.
Minapharm’s German subsidiary, ProBioGen AG, aims to undertake efforts for process optimization to further increase the production scale taking advantage of its expertise in viral vector technology and manufacturing process development for vaccines and gene therapy.
To date Sputnik V has been registered in 60 countries globally with total population of 3 billion people. ■