Argentine President Alberto Fernandez announced on Friday that the South American country would begin producing the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine after a virtual meeting with its counterpart Vladimir Putin.
“Next Sunday, a plane will leave for Moscow to retrieve the” active ingredient so production can begin immediately in Argentina, ”Fernandez said.
In December, Argentina was the first Latin American country to approve the Sputnik vaccine.
It has been approved in more than 65 countries, but does not include the United States or any of the European Union.
“We are delighted with the results of this vaccine because millions of Argentines have been saved,” Fernandez said.
Richmond’s private lab will be in charge of producing the vaccine, with a capacity to make a million doses a month to begin with.
The lab expects to increase it to five million a month in a year.
Another Argentine laboratory has been accused of producing the AstraZeneca vaccine, and then assembling it in Mexico, but the process has had problems that have delayed production.
To date, Argentina has administered 10.4 million doses of coronavirus, including Sputnik, AstraZeneca and Sinopharm.
The country of 45 million people has registered 3.8 million cases and nearly 80,000 deaths from COVID.
© 2021 AFP
Citation: President says Argentina will produce Russian COVID vaccine (2021, June 4), retrieved June 4, 2021 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-argentina-russian-covid-vaccine .html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair treatment for private study or research purposes, no part may be reproduced without written permission. Content is provided for informational purposes only.