Elvira Zini, Scientific Director of Argentina’s Richmond Laboratories, announced today that Richmond President Marcelo Figueiras has signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Moscow, with the representative of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Tagir Sitdekov to produce the Sputnik V vaccine in Argentina, the state news agency Telam reported. This agreement, Zini said, “will guarantee the future of [vaccine] supplies, although not immediately.”
According to Marcelo Figueiras, it will take between 18 and 24 months for production to begin. “It won’t resolve our immediate emergency,” he said, “but it will allow us to produce our own health resources in the future.” Richmond plans to build another factory, in addition to its existing one, for vaccine production.
According to the MOU, the agreement involves three actors: Richmond Laboratories, Russia’s Gamaleya Institute (producer of Sputnik V), and India’s Hetero company, a longtime strategic partner of Richmond Labs which will be transferring technology to it for the vaccine production.
