How many vaccines will Russia supply to the CIS countries
The great majority of the CIS countries have registered Sputnik V, and Turkmenistan, which has the status of an associate member of the CIS, has approved the use of two Russian drugs at once – Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona. The RBC website writes about what assistance in the supply of vaccines Russia will be able to render to its closest neighbors.
Eight of ten CIS countries – Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and four Central Asian republics – followed Russia in issuing approval for the emergency use of the Russian drug Sputnik V to vaccinate the population against the COVID-19 coronavirus. At least in six of them, the drug is already used for vaccination.
RBC notes that there is no comprehensive data on the number of vaccines that Russia will deliver to the countries of the former Soviet Union, and their price, but at the end of last year, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reported that in 2021, Uzbekistan can receive up to 25 million doses of Sputnik V (while Tashkent is still waiting for the agreement of terms and conditions of the contract terms and the beginning of deliveries). The COVID-19 Control Commission of Uzbekistan noted that it intends to receive 1 million doses from Russia in the near future.
In the first quarter of this year, 340 thousand single-component doses of Sputnik V are expected to be delivered to Belarus. Kyrgyzstan expects to receive 500 thousand doses of the drug, Armenia – 15 thousand, RBC informs in the Ministry of Health of the republic. The Ministry of Health of Armenia also reported that the RDIF has already conveyed 2,060 doses of the vaccine to the country.
Thus, in total, in the first half of the year, Russia will supply several million doses of vaccines to the CIS countries. The volume of supplies can be multiply increased due to the localization of vaccine production in Belarus, and potentially in other countries. So, Sputnik V, in addition to Russia, is produced in two other countries. It is planned that in March, the pharmaceutical complex in Karaganda (Kazakhstan) will deliver 150 thousand doses of the vaccine, from April to June – 600 thousand doses per month, the interdepartmental commission on non-proliferation of COVID-19 indicated. From the end of March, Sputnik V will be produced in Belarus. “It is planned that [it will be] 500 thousand doses per month,” – predicted the Deputy Healthcare Minister of Belarus Dmitry Cherednichenko. The possibility of localizing the production of Sputnik V in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan is still under discussion.
“As for the cost of the drug, the RDIF noted: the price of the vaccine is less than $10 per dose and will be delivered at the same price to all countries,” writes RBC.
