The Russian Direct Investment Fund is considering an offer by several private US pharmacological companies to funnel investments into Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, RDIF's CEO Kirill Dmitriev said Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference, Dmitriev stated that Russia had already received requests for a total of 1.2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine. According to the head of RDIF, the fund will deliver the vaccine to another seven Latin American, Middle Eastern and Asian nations.
The fund expects the monthly production of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine to reach 10 million doses by the end of December.
"Russia will certainly become the first country in the world to ensure the successful vaccination of its population against the coronavirus," the RDIF CEO added.
Dmitriev had previously stated that the fund had received requests from over 20 countries for 1 billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
In August, Russia registered the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, which had been developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. According to the health ministry, Sputnik V is safe and has proven to be capable of building an immunity against the virus. The vaccine is yet to complete the required Phase 3 of clinical trials.
