MOSCOW, 8 February (BelTA) – The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states will jointly produce a vaccine against COVID-19, the press service of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) said.
“The EEC agencies responsible for the manufacturing sector are giving the finishing touches to an action plan on production of strategically important medicines and pharmaceutical substances in the Eurasian Economic Union,” the press service said.
The EEC recalled that while examining the state of things in the EAEU manufacturing industry in April last year the heads of the EAEU member states also discussed whether the EAEU countries have enough medicines to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Back then they emphasized the importance and relevance of developing this action plan and gave a corresponding instruction to the EEC. The joint production of vaccines was discussed at the meeting of Member of the EEC Board – Minister in charge of Industry and Agriculture Artak Kamalyan with senior managers of the Eurasian Development Bank in December 2020. The same month the plan on the production of strategically important medical products was finalized, approved by the EAEU countries and submitted for public discussion on the EEC website.
“The draft plan provides for a number of measures designed to boost the pharmaceutical industry of the EAEU states and expand cooperation between the member countries with a view to promoting import substitution of strategically important medicines and pharmaceutical substances. It also provides for a possibility of joint production of a vaccine against the coronavirus infection. Given the urgency of this task and taking into consideration the initiative to launch joint vaccine production at the Eurasian level put forward at the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council meeting on 11 December 2020, the EEC and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) started considering a possibility of creating joint production of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in the EAEU member states,” the EEC emphasized.
According to the EEC, by the end of 2020 RDIF jointly with the Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan finalized the organizational matters and the transfer of relevant technologies and launched a vaccine production line at the facilities of the Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex. It is expected to produce 300,000 doses of the vaccine monthly. By now, more than 90,000 doses have already been produced. They will be used for vaccination after the completion of all registration procedures. All in all, at least 2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine are to be produced in Kazakhstan.
The production of the Sputnik V vaccine is to be launched in Belarus soon. A number of cooperation agreements on localization of production have already been signed, the transfer of relevant technologies has been established,” the EEC said.
“In addition, the Eurasian Economic Commission is discussing the involvement of Armenian and Kyrgyz pharmaceutical companies in the joint vaccine production,” the press service added.
