Russian Sputnik V expands reach in Latin America

The Sputnik V vaccine has a cheaper list price and can be stored at higher temperatures than the Pfizer vaccine, making it attractive to countries in Latin American countries with less developed economies and infrastructure. It requires two doses that are taken 21 days apart to be effective.

Since then, Venezuela and Mexico have both received shipments of 100,000 and 200,000, respectively, in early February. Nicaragua began distributing the vaccine on March 2 after receiving a donation of an unknown amount of doses.

As Russia struggles to keep up with demand, some countries have received only very small loads. Bolivia received 20,000 doses of Sputnik V in January, although they expect enough to eventually vaccinate 2.6 million people. Paraguay has announced the purchase of one million doses, but has so far received only 4,000.

According to Russian Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Russia has acknowledged production pressure and is considering launching local production hubs in several countries, including Brazil.

There is some interest in producing the Sputnik V vaccine locally in Latin America. The RDIF recently announced an agreement with the Richmond Laboratories in Argentina to begin manufacturing the vaccine in the country, although it has not yet provided a delivery timeframe.

Experts have repeatedly expressed concern about transparency surrounding Sputnik’s testing and its accelerated authorization in Russia. However, the vaccine was found to be 91.6% effective against the symptomatic Covid-19 and 100% effective against serious and moderate diseases, in an interim analysis of the phase 3 trial results of the vaccine published in The Lancet.