RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The national government confirmed that Argentina will purchase 25 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. President Alberto Fernández told SputnikNews that the first ten million doses will be delivered in December and the remainder in early January.
Last week, the nation’s Secretary of Health Access, Carla Vizzotti, traveled secretly to Russia to learn about the Sputnik V, patented in that country in mid-August.
The President said that this trip aimed to start the purchase process and that the Russian Foreign Ministry approached Argentina to determine if it was interested in acquiring the doses: “The results were very good because it is at a very advanced development stage. As far as we are told, they are completing phase three. They would be able to supply us with ten million doses, of the two doses variety, in December and 15 million more in early January. That would allow us to vaccinate the risk groups in Argentina.”
As explained by the head of state, from now on every step taken with the Sputnik V will be notified to the Argentine National Administration of Medicines, Food and Medical Technology (ANMAT), as well as to the Russian authorities and to the World Health Organization: “We have succeeded in checking every step taken in Russia and in the World Health Organization regarding the quality control of the vaccine. The submissions are made to the Russian authority, to the W.H.O. and to ANMAT), the Argentine authority.”
“We have very good expectations, we are very hopeful. We could have a vaccine by December,” said Fernández who stated: “We have been talking with the Russian sovereign fund for quite some time trying to see how their vaccine evolves, because we are very interested in having the first one in the world and in having it in Argentina.”
With respect to the price, the head of state said: “It is more or less within the average of what the world’s vaccines are proposing.”
He also assured that if a vaccine were advanced, he would take it. He also confessed that he had been offered a dose from another company developing it but he chose not to take it as he did not feel it was fair for him to be vaccinated while others were not: “The day I am vaccinated it is because we were all able to be immunized, not because I have the privilege for being President. But obviously, if the Russian vaccine were here in December, I would certainly take it.”
The Government’s goal is to get the doses as soon as possible, to prevent a resurgence of infections in Argentina after the summer, as is currently happening in some European countries.
The Buenos Aires Minister of Health Fernán Quirós yesterday morning endorsed Vizzotti’s trip to Russia: “The trip made by the Argentine delegation is very valuable. We have to work with all manufacturers and governments for access. Once the results of phase 3 trials are known, to determine which is more effective and safe, having the connections, contracts, and relationships with the manufacturers is crucial .”
“For this reason, although phase 3 trials have not yet been announced, I think that the trip is tremendously relevant and I celebrate the fact that the government is working with the different purchase options,” Quirós added.
The Sputnik V vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya Epidemiological and Microbiological Research Center and is in phase 3 clinical trials. In fact, the company has already applied to the W.H.O. for pre-classification of its vaccine against the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, a key step in securing global approval for its distribution and use.
As published in The Lancet medical journal, 100 percent of healthy adult subjects in the Sputnik V Phase I and II clinical trials showed a strong immune response to SARS-CoV-2. Further research will be conducted to confirm these results, while Phase III is being conducted in Russia and other countries.
Created artificially, without any element of the coronavirus in its composition, this vaccine is available in lyophilized form, that is, as a freeze-dried powder that is combined with a pharmaceutically inactive excipient to be dissolved and then administered by intramuscular injections.
Source: infobae