St. Petersburg (Russia):
As Indian businesses get prepared to manufacture Russian-made Sputnik V anti-Covid vaccine to meet the staggering demand in the nation, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday stated Russia is the only nation in the world which is prepared to transfer technologies and to expand production abroad, and noted that the vaccine was becoming sold in 66 nations.
The remarks by the Russian president came a day just after the officials in New Delhi stated that Serum Institute of India has received a preliminary approval from the country’s drug regulator for manufacturing of Sputnik V.
Already Indian pharma enterprise, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, in April, 2021 received the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Russian vaccine. Also Panacea Biotec in collaboration with Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF has begun the production of Sputnik V vaccine in India.
Rejecting allegations more than Sputnik V vaccine’s efficacy, the Russian president in the course of a virtual interaction with senior editors of important international news agencies, which includes the Press Trust of India, the Associated Press and Reuters, stated that the delay in acquiring the vaccine registered in Europe was due to a “competitive struggle” and “commercial interests” there.
With China becoming blamed by some nations, specially the US, for the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Putin stated also considerably has been stated about the topic, and emphasised that the crisis should really not be “politicised”.
He was replying to a query on the trigger of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, US President Joe Biden announced that he had ordered additional intelligence investigation into the origins of COVID-19 amidst allegations that coronavirus originated from a laboratory in China’s Wuhan city with former US president Donal Trump calling for imposing a fine on the Asian nation for the “death and destruction” it has brought on.
“Too many things have already been said on this subject, so it seems to me that making more comments about this would be pointless. I don’t think that I can say something new or intriguing,” Mr Putin stated by means of a translator.
Noting that there was a competitive struggle against Sputnik V, Putin stated, “in 66 countries, we are selling our vaccine, it is a huge market for us. I am pretty sure the allegations are due to commercial reasons but we are following humanitarian reasons.”