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Coronavirus: Russia turns to China for shot at meeting Sputnik demand
- Orders for the vaccine are soaring but there are few signs that overseas contractors have been able to make much of the product
- Chinese companies have been enlisted in recent weeks to help fill the gap in production
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Russia is turning to multiple Chinese firms to manufacture the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an effort to speed up production as demand soars for its shot.
Russia has announced three deals totalling 260 million doses with Chinese vaccine companies in recent weeks. It is a decision that could mean quicker access to a shot for countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa that have ordered Russia’s vaccine, as the US and the European Union focus mainly on domestic vaccination needs.
Earlier criticism about Russia’s vaccine have been largely quieted by data published in the British medical journal The Lancet that said large-scale testing showed it to be safe, with an efficacy rate of 91 per cent.
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Yet, experts have questioned whether Russia can fulfil its pledge to countries across the world. While pledging hundreds of millions of doses, it has only delivered a fraction.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said demand for Sputnik V significantly exceeds Russia’s domestic production capacity.
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To boost production, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which bankrolled Sputnik V, has signed agreements with multiple drug makers in other countries, such as India, South Korea, Brazil, Serbia, Turkey and Italy. There are few indications, however, that manufacturers abroad, except for those in Belarus and Kazakhstan, have made any large amounts of the vaccine so far.
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