Russia to make Sputnik V vaccine in Italy; a 1st in EU

MILAN (AP) — Russia has signed a deal to produce its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Italy, the first contract in the European Union, the Italian Russian Chamber of Commerce announced Tuesday.

The deal was signed with Adienne Srl, the Italian subsidiary of a Swiss-based pharmaceutical company, and Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. Production is set to start in July and produce 10 million doses this year.

“The innovative production process will help create new jobs and allow Italy to control the entire production of the compound,’’ the chamber said in a statement. Financial terms were not released.

Russian authorities are working on 20 similar collaborations in Europe and the Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 45 nations worldwide, the group said.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the vaccine and markets it abroad has said that the production of Sputnik V will span several countries, including India, South Korea, Brazil, China, Turkey, Iran, as well as Belarus and Kazakhstan. Some manufacturers abroad have produced trial batches of the Russian vaccine, but there are few indications they have so far produced any large amounts of the shot.

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