Sputnik V Made-in-Bahrain

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The deal signed by Bahrain and Russia will see the establishment of the first Sputnik V production facility in the Middle East. Sputnik Vs made-in-Bahrain will be distributed to countries all across the Gulf Cooperation Council and MENA region. The deal comes at a crucial time when the fears over the new strains of coronavirus are growing worldwide, with governments taking fresh steps to curbs its transmission.

Bahrain had tightened its curbs by introducing a new set of restrictions amid a fresh uptick in the active cases, as recommended by the National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus.

“Our partnership with both RDIF and Binnopharm Group will enable Bahrain to continue to be at the forefront of fighting this pandemic whilst working to further enhance the region’s health - care sector through the establishment of this facility,” said Khalid Al Rumaihi, the CEO of Mumtalakat.

Kirill Dimitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Find (RDIF), added that the local facility would increase its international production capabilities “and help other countries of the region prevent the spread of Covid-19.” Russia also has similar agreements with India.

RDIF has manufacturing contracts with six Indian companies, including Hetero Biopharma, Gland Pharma, Stelis Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Virchow Biotech and Shilpa Medicare.

The deal is to make more than 850 million doses of Sputnik V. The RDIF’s deal with Chinese company Hualan Biological Bacterin will produce over 100 million doses of Sputnik V a year in China.

So far, Sputnik V is approved for use in 60 countries and is positioned as the second among Covid-19 vaccines worldwide in terms of approvals issued by various regulators.

Bahrain introduced Sputnik V to its national portfolio in February and its one-shot slimmed-down Sputnik-Light in May this year. Sputnik-Light COVID-19 was the sixth vaccine authorised for emergency use in the Kingdom, while Sputnik V was the fourth authorised vaccine.

China’s Sinopharm, Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine, AstraZeneca’s Covishield, and the J&J vaccine are the other jabs in use in the Kingdom. “We are happy to share our know-how with other countries to assist them in developing their production of Sputnik-V at scale,” said Dmitry Zubov, Chairman of the Board of Binnopharm Group.

He also revealed: “Last summer, Binnopharm Group’s pharmaceutical plant in Zelenograd was the first in Russia to launch production of the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik-V.” He said they had perfected the technology over the last year and “now have a good understanding of how to scale up the production of the vaccine.”