Argentina manufactures over 5 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine developed by Russia

Richmond, an Argentine pharmaceutical company, claims to have produced more than five million doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine. Late Friday, the company took to Twitter and wrote, "We have produced in Argentina more than 5 million doses, given the batch manufactured yesterday. At the moment, we have produced 1,179,625 doses of the first component and 3,890,000 doses of the second component."

Argentina was the first Latin American country to sanction Sputnik V

Argentina was the first Latin American country to both sanction and localise the manufacture of the Sputnik V vaccine. It revealed intentions in April to produce 4-5 million doses of Russia's vaccine monthly, with annual output expected to reach 500 million doses. The vaccine was registered in Argentina under the emergency use authorisation procedure, and coronavirus vaccination with the Russian vaccine began on December 29, 2020. The Sputnik V has been approved in 70 countries with a combined population of around 4 billion people. Recently, Indonesia approved the use of the Sputnik V vaccine in an emergency situation making it the 70th country in the world to approve it.

Sputnik V outperforms many other Coronavirus vaccines in terms of efficacy against the Delta variant. The vaccination is 83.1% effective and reduces infection risk by 6 times. According to the RDIF statement, Sputnik V is 94.4% effective against hospitalisations, with an 18x reduction in hospitalisation risk. RDIF also stated that the Sputnik Light vaccine which is the component of Sputnik V is built on a human adenoviral vector platform that has been proved to be safe and effective with no long-term side effects. 

The vaccine is still being evaluated by WHO

According to research published on the preprint server medRxiv, Russia's Sputnik V vaccination is standing up well against the Delta variant. The two-dose vaccine reduced the incidence of COVID-19 hospitalisation by 81% and helped prevent serious lung injury in nearly 14,000 participants. However, according to Science, the vaccine is still being evaluated by the European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization (WHO). With WHO approval, the vaccine can be provided through the COVID-19 Vaccinations Global Access Facility, a programme that provides COVID-19 vaccines to low-and middle-income countries.

(Inputs from ANI)

Image- @kb_ql22/Twitter