The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Torlak Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Serums announced an agreement for the production of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Serbia, the RDIF reports.
Serbia will be the first state in Southern Europe to produce Sputnik V. In the future, it is possible to export the drug to other countries of the region.
The start of production of the Sputnik V vaccine at the facilities of the Torlak Institute is expected until May this year. The Institute is a state manufacturer and supplier of vaccines to medical institutions in Serbia, including through the compulsory vaccination program.
“We are grateful to the Government of Serbia for its continued support and trust in the Sputnik V vaccine. Serbia was one of the first countries in the world to approve and use the Russian drug to vaccinate the population against coronavirus. The production of Sputnik V by the Torlak Institute will simplify logistics and accelerate the implementation of the vaccination program in Serbia, “said Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF CEO.
The first batch of Sputnik V vaccine was delivered to Serbia on December 30, 2020. Anti-COVID19 vaccination with Russian drug started in Serbia on January 6, 2021.
To date, the Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 56 countries with a total population of over 1.5 billion people. The effectiveness of Sputnik V is 91.6%, as confirmed by the publication of data in The Lancet, one of the oldest and most respected medical journals in the world. The vaccine is built on a well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and uses two different vectors for two vaccinations during vaccination, providing longer immunity than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism.