MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Brazilian pharmaceutical company Uniao Quimica have agreed on supplies of 10 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to Brazil in the first quarter of 2021, vaccine developers said on Wednesday.
Russia, which has the world’s fourth highest number of COVID-19 cases, started large-scale vaccinations at home last month and is promoting its Sputnik V vaccine in other countries.
First deliveries of the vaccine, which Brazil started producing this year, will begin in January, said the developers of the vaccine backed by the RDIF.
The RDIF and Uniao Quimica will apply for an emergency use authorisation for Sputnik V in Brazil this week, the developers said.
RDIF has said it would like to produce the two-shot vaccine in Brazil for export to other countries in Latin America.
Russia is also in talks with other countries in the region on the use of Sputnik V.
Mexico will make a decision this week on whether to authorize Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine after Argentina began vaccinating its citizens with imported doses of Sputnik V, the only vaccine so far being administered in that country.
(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh; Editing by Gareth Jones and David Gregorio)
