Russia sells millions of doses of its own Sputnik V vaccine abroad, making it a major supplier of a blow that could give Moscow a valuable share of the global Covid-19 vaccine market and gain Russia’s geopolitical influence in the world. development course.
Argentina is the first major country outside Russia to start inoculating with Sputnik on a large scale. However, the launch there highlighted questions about the lack of transparency regarding the effectiveness of the state-sponsored Sputnik V, which has raised some mistrust among Argentines about its safety.
Moscow approved Sputnik V for home use in August before finishing trials. Evidence published since then has shown that Sputnik was 91.4% effective in protecting people from Covid-19 and a study evaluated by colleagues is expected to be published in the coming weeks. About a million Russians were shot.
Other countries have rushed to buy a vaccine cheaper than Western alternatives. Sputnik V, named after the Soviet satellite launched into orbit during the Cold War, ranks third in the world in doses ordered by middle- and low-income countries, according to Duke University’s Global Center for Health Innovation, ahead of US drugmaker Pfizer Inc. and Modern Vaccines Inc. and China. Eight countries outside Russia have authorized emergency shooting.
However, Sputnik V has not been approved by Western health authorities, nor has it received authorization from the WHO, on which many developing countries rely for vaccine testing. Russia has initiated talks with the European Medicines Agency on the approval of the shooting in the European Union and has requested WHO authorization.