SUBSCRIBERS EXCLUSIVE
The inauguration deadlines foreseen by the Richmond laboratory were postponed. They will no longer make Sputnik V. What will they make and since when.
The inauguration of the new plant in Pilar Richmond, a laboratory that in the most critical times of the pandemic was in charge of producing the vacuna rusa Sputnik V in Argentina, it was postponed once again. The latest information published by Clarion indicated that the opening was going to be in March 2023but now it is projected for end of the year.
The story began in mid-2021, when the Government approved a escrow for the construction of the plant. Then it was said that within a year it could be finished. The first certain date that was handled was October 2022. Then it went to December of that same year and then March of this year.
The data of new delay arises from the report on the “LIFE project (Immunization Vaccine for Argentine Development)”, carried out by the risk rating agency Fix SCR, which makes periodic reports on the progress of the plant and gives an account of the state of the business.
It is a project for 85 million dollarswith the aim of financing the acquisition, installation and commissioning of a plant for the vaccine productionamong which are those of Covid.
Although Richmond’s original plan was to be the Argentine paw from the Gamaleya Center of Russia, from the Argentine laboratory confirmed that the contract for the manufacture of the Sputnik V vaccine term. “All committed production has been completed,” they told Clarion company sources.
Los setbacks with Sputnik V apparently they did not play in favor for the production of the drug to pose a viable horizon. One of those obstacles was the impossibility -without a certain date- to obtain the approval of the World Health Organization, a deficit that left it one step below of the rest of the vaccines applied in the country.
¿what will produce the Pilar plant now that the so-called Sputnik VIDA project has ended? “We continue with Cansino for Covid and with other laboratories for gripe, hepatitis, HPV and some more. We are also going to work for third parties, since it is going to be one of the most modern plants and with the greatest capacity in Latin America”, said the laboratory sources.
The Fix SCR report details that “the plant will also be prepared for the production of other biotechnological products, in order to be able to provide services to different pharmaceutical laboratories with an estimated total capacity of about 80 million vials per year”. This would be the equivalent of about 500 million vaccines.
According to the latest report from the rating agency, dated May 3, “all the equipment necessary for the project has already been manufactured” and “it is in CIF status (at the agreed port of destination) Buenos Aires. The delay in customs clearance obliges to redefine the date on which its assembly and start-up would be completed, which is estimated to be at the end of 2023”.
However, the Richmond sources consulted confirmed that the machines They have all arrived at the plant. for your installation. “It only remains for the paneling that Senasa is reviewing,” they assured. They added: “It was quite late but next year we will be operational with various vaccine alternatives. After finishing everything, processes must be validated and authorized by the ANMAT”.
The same document from the rating agency reports a drop in laboratory sales in 2022 due to the end of the contract with Sputnik. He speaks of “a smaller portion of sales of Sputnik V vaccines components I and II that represented the 14.5 percent or 2,669 million pesos in 2022, while in 2021 it represented the 43.5 percent (14,073 million pesos) of total sales and that caused real sales to fall on 42.9 percent in real terms.
In February 2021, in full crisis due to lack of vaccines against Covid, Richmond had signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to produce Sputnik V in Argentina. Since then, they have made 9 million doses which were delivered to the Argentine Government for distribution.
Despite the interruption of business between Richmond and Russia, on February 13 the Ministry of Health reported that Argentina incorporated “the the Sputnik Light vaccine of the Gamaleya Center to start, complete primary schemes or, as a reinforcement dose in people over 18 years of age”.
Sputnik Light is the first component of the two that complete Sputnik V. An option found by the Gamaleya Center in the face of production difficulties presented by the second component of the original vaccine. But that is already told history.
In Richmond, despite the delays that would end up completing the goal more than a year later than planned, they are very excited about what is coming: “It’s going to be the best plant in Latin AmericaWe are going to do all kinds of vaccinations. It will be something splendid and a pride for the country.”
PS
2023-05-13 09:00:17
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