Egypt to produce Russian Covid-19 vaccine
It is more than likely that Russia will start producing its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Egypt and Algeria. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has recently confirmed that there is a possibility for Russia to manufacture its vaccine in African countries. The agency's director general, Kiril Dmitriev, said that collaboration with these countries is one of the priority areas.
Russia registered the first Covid-19 vaccine called Sputnik V on 11 August. It was developed by the Nikolai Gamaleya Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology together with the RDIF. This medicine, like the European Pzifer vaccine, is injected in two doses 21 days apart. President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had become the first country in the world to approve the Covid-19 vaccine and confirmed that one of his daughters had already received the vaccine.
The Russian vaccine is the cheapest ever developed, with the price of the dose being less than 10 dollars. During the UN online presentation of the Russian Covid19 vaccine on 2 December, Dmitritiv mentioned that more than 40 countries showed interest in the drug.
Although Russia has registered its vaccine as the first in the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has not recognised Sputnik V. The organisation has not registered it even though Russia has submitted its application as no vaccine against Covid-19 is registered.
A subsidiary of Pharco Pharmaceuticals, BioGeneric Pharma, and RDIF signed an agreement regarding the Covid-19 vaccine. Sherine Helmy, executive director of Pharco Pharmaceuticals, said in a press release on 12 November that they will soon sign legal contracts. Industrialisation will start from 20 April.
She explained that the vaccine will be manufactured in two phases: the transfer of the manufacture of the vaccine to the Egyptian company, and the import and filling of the vaccine in Egypt. This will pave the way for its distribution in Egypt and Africa. An application has been submitted to the Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, to start with the clinical trials and registration procedures for the manufacture of Sputnik V.
The director of the Egyptian Centre for the Right to Medicine, Mahmoud Fouad, in a telephone conversation with Al-Monitor announced that the signing of contracts is in the best interest of Egypt. He hopes that there will be coordination for the fair distribution of Russian vaccine to citizens between Pharco Pharma, the Ministry of Health and the Egyptian Unified Procurement and Supply Authority.
He also said that Egyptian laboratories do not have the capacity to produce the vaccine. The most important step for Fouad is the import and administration of the vaccine no matter where it was produced.
The Egyptian Cabinet asked the medical teams to prepare agreements with other companies to ensure the supply of a large quantity of vaccine. It authorised on 2 December to take the necessary steps to start distributing the vaccine as soon as possible.
On 8 December Russia sent in an application for its second EpiVacCorona vaccine which was developed at the Siberian scientific centre Vektor, which is part of the Russian Agency for Consumer Protection (Rospotrebnadzor), headed by Anna Popova.
The vaccine is supposed to guarantee immunity for at least six months and can be injected several times. They explain that it does not cause allergic reactions and can be given to elderly people and patients with chronic diseases.
