Russia has achieved a resounding reputational and financial victory in Europe
The Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Swiss company Adienne Pharma & Biotech have signed an agreement to produce the Sputnik V anti-Covid vaccine for Italians.
Asya Emelyanova, a correspondent for VGTRK in Italy, stated this via video link from Rome on the Rossiya 1 TV channel, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“A small town near Brianza, Lombardy, will soon be on everyone’s lips. It is there that the pharmaceutical plant is located, which is due to begin production of the Sputnik vaccine in June. Sputnik Adienne is a subsidiary of a Swiss company with which the Russian private equity fund has entered into a contract.
So, Lombardy, June, and by the end of the year this plant should produce at least 10 million doses. For Russia, this is, of course, a reputational and financial victory, but, above all, it is a victory for Italy, which will be the first in Europe to begin producing Sputnik, thereby guaranteeing its own volumes of vaccines, which means independence from the EU and independence from collective procurement . Accordingly, delays in deliveries to Italy may also end,” the journalist said.
According to her, conversations about Sputnik V in Italy began after several EU countries - Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia - decided to conclude contracts for the supply of the vaccine without regard to Brussels.
“The discussions intensified after the country’s leading infectious diseases institute, Spallanzani, gave the highest assessment of the drug’s effectiveness, and there were rumors around AstraZeneca at that time. But even more questions and a greater desire to receive Sputnik appeared after those supply disruptions began. No one understood why in this situation no one was thinking about the health of the population.
Let me remind you that in Italy there are 100 thousand dead, this is a terrible figure. And by June, the factory near Lombardy will begin supplying the country with its own vaccine, made under license, accordingly, this is a kind of technology transfer, let’s see how it works out,” Emelyanova concluded.
Russia has achieved a resounding reputational and financial victory in Europe.