Russia says its vaccine will be cheap and kept above 0 degrees

Kiril Dmítriev announced that the price of Sputnik V will be announced this week, which will be more affordable than Pfizer’s vaccine and Germany’s BioNTech, and Moderna’s, according to the president of the Russian sovereign wealth fund.

Russia’s Sputnik V, the alternative to Western vaccines, will be “several times” cheaper than Pfizer and Moderna’s, and can be transported from February in temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees, it said Monday 23-N to Efe Kiril Dmitriev, head of the state fund in charge of its sale and distribution.

“Sputnik V will be several times cheaper than American ones,” said Dmitriev, president of the Russian Fund for Direct Investments (FIDR), over a videoconference.

Dmitriev announced that the price of Sputnik V will be announced this week, which will be cheaper than Pfizer’s vaccine and Germany’s BioNTech, and Moderna’s, according to the president of the Russian sovereign wealth fund.

He recalled that the effectiveness of the Russian vaccine, the first to be registered in the world, is 92%, according to preliminary data from the third phase of clinical trials.

“These are very good results. Anything above 50% is a very high level,” he explained.

Russia will begin supplying the vaccine to the world between December and January, which will also be produced in countries such as Brazil, China, India or South Korea.

As for transport, which in Pfizer’s case is 70 degrees below zero and in the case of Moderna 20 below zero, Dimítriev specified that in the first batch, the Sputnik V will be kept at 18 degrees below zero.

From February, however, freeze-drying technology will be applied, which serves to dehydrate the vaccine, which will greatly facilitate its transport.

“As of February, most vaccines will already be supplied in temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees. This will limit the transport restrictions,” he said.

However, he stressed that Russia does not aspire to Sputnik V to be the only vaccine on the market, but to be part of a catalog of vaccines that will be distributed worldwide.

“Only together, by joining forces, can we defeat the coronavirus,” he said.

Dmitriev welcomed the emergence of other vaccines, arguing that “Sputnik V cannot be the one-size-fits-all solution and there must be other alternatives”.

“Now, our vaccine is in demand for a billion people. We can only produce 500 million doses next year,” he explained.

The Russian vaccine was received with skepticism by other countries, initially because it was registered in Russia without completing clinical trials, and later because preliminary results have not yet been reviewed by independent scientists or published in leading scientific journals.