Covid-19: will the Russian vaccine Sputnik V meet the demand?
Argentina received three times fewer doses of Sputnik V last week than expected.
AP - Natacha Pisarenko
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
After the validation of the Spoutnik V vaccine by the prestigious scientific journal "The Lancet", its promoters now hope that the vaccine will be approved by European countries.
However, one problem may arise: that of its production.
Because the client countries of Sputnik V are already reporting delivery delays
Publicity
Read more
To date, only about 15 countries have approved Sputnik V and a handful of them have started using it in their vaccination campaign.
After the publication of
The Lancet
on the effectiveness of the Russian vaccine
, their numbers are expected to quickly soar.
Russia still has to be able to meet demand.
Last week, the news made the headlines of the Argentine press: the third shipment of Sputnik V promised by Russia to Buenos Aires was three times smaller than expected.
The plane from Moscow contained only 200,000 doses instead of 600,000. The Argentinian authorities who had bet on Russia for its vaccination campaign could only be disappointed.
Of the approximately 20 million doses promised by Moscow at the end of February, Argentina has received only 800,000 so far, and there is little chance that the rate will be respected.
Compared to its competitors, Sputnik V has several advantages: it is less expensive and stores more easily.
But information on the production of the vaccine is partial, if not nonexistent.
In theory, several foreign partner countries should participate in production and allow Russia to meet global demand, but no figures are available for the time being on the number of doses actually produced in India, South Korea or in Kazakhstan.
Asked about the production capacities of the Russian vaccine, the Kremlin admitted on Wednesday that it would be necessary to count on Russia's foreign partners to meet demand.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
Coronavirus
Vaccines
Russia