Turkey, Russia sign deal on Sputnik V vaccine production

Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF said on Jan. 23 it had signed an agreement with Turkey on the production of its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19. Russia has announced several international deals for the supply of Sputnik V, named after the Soviet-era satellite that triggered the space race in a nod to the project’s geopolitical importance for Moscow.

Saturday January 23 2021 07:03 pm

Reuters / Duvar English

Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF said on Jan. 23 it had signed an agreement with Turkey on the production of its Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, the Interfax news agency reported.

RDIF added that it had begun transferring the production technology to Turkey.

RDIF has also signed deals to produce Sputnik V with manufacturers in South Korea, China, India, Brazil, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Mass vaccinations began in Turkey last week after the first batch of 3 million doses of the vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech arrived in Turkey on Dec. 30.

So far, over 1 million people, mostly health workers and elderly people, have been vaccinated against the virus across the country since the beginning of the campaign on Jan. 14.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Jan. 22 China had approved the delivery of a second consignment of the CoronaVac vaccine, and 10 million doses could arrive in Turkey by this weekend.

Turkey has also agreed with Pfizer and BioNTech for 4.5 million doses of their vaccine and is working on developing its own vaccine domestically.