Russia’s announcement of the registration of the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine has led over 20 countries around the world to request over a billion doses.
Russia Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev stated that they have witnessed countries from Latin America, Middle East and Asia who have expressed interest to secure doses of the vaccine that is now named “Sputnik-V”, which references the world’s first satellite by the Soviet Union launched in 1957.
“We’ve seen considerable interest in the Russian vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute abroad. Moreover, we have received preliminary applications for over 1 billion doses of the vaccine from 20 countries,” said Dmitriev.
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“Along with our foreign partners, we are already prepared to manufacture over 500 million doses of vaccine per year in five countries, and the plan is to ramp-up production capacity even higher.”
He added: “So far, countries in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia have displayed the greatest interest in the vaccine, and we are about to finalize a number of contracts for the purchase of the vaccine.”
Reports from CNN state that the Russian vaccine has yet to pass Phase 3 of the testing stage which involves thousands of volunteers to assess the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.
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Dmitriev said that the trials will take place overseas and mentioned that the UAE is among the countries where the trials of the Sputnik-V vaccine would be administered.
“We have already reached agreements on conducting the relevant trials of the Gamaleya vaccine with partners from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and a number of other countries,” he said.
