BUENOS AIRES (AP) – The first batch of Russian Sputnik V vaccines against the coronavirus produced by a laboratory in Argentina received the endorsement of its creators and will soon be distributed just at a time when the South American country suffers a significant delay in the application of the complete scheme of that inoculant.
The Gamaleya Institute, which developed the Russian vaccine, approved the quality of 140,625 doses of component 1 manufactured in the Richmond laboratory, located in a northern suburb of Buenos Aires, its head Marcelo Figueiras announced on Thursday during a video conference with President Alberto Fernández .
“We are proud as an Argentine pharmaceutical laboratory, for the existing capacities in our country, both human and technical, industrial, which have allowed us to complete the final production process of the Sputnik vaccine components 1 and 2 in our laboratory”, highlighted the entrepreneur.
Before distributing the doses for its application, the Richmond laboratory needs the authorization of the Argentine health agency. Figueiras announced that they will send the documentation shortly.
The announcement came at a time when most Argentines vaccinated with a dose of Sputnik V have not yet completed the schedule. In some cases, the delay exceeds the three months recommended by infectious disease specialists between both doses. Argentina also applies AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines.
The pressure on the government to speed up the vaccination of the population was redoubled the day before after exceeding 100,000 deaths during the pandemic.
“The best tribute we can pay to them is to take care of those who are there and one way to take care of them is to be able to continue making the vaccine in Argentina,” said Fernández. “Argentina was needing to have these vaccines, the pandemic will endure and it will take time to overcome it.”
The Richmond laboratory detailed that it has produced a total of 1.3 million doses of component 1 and just over a million of the second component ready to be distributed when they receive the pertinent authorizations.
About half of the 45 million Argentines received a dose of the coronavirus vaccine, but only five million have the complete scheme.
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