Russia has already received 1.2 BN 'expressions of interests' for its COVID-19 vaccine

While Russia announced ‘world’s first’ COVID-19 vaccine last month causing a stir among the desperate world leaders about the same, Russian officials have reportedly also revealed that the nation has reached preliminary deals with more than ten countries across the Middle East, South America and Asia that could, in turn, provide Russia “a valuable economic and political leverage” on the global level. As per a Wall Street Journal reports, Russia has secured deals for the potential COVID-19 vaccine with several nations including India summing up for the total requests or “expressions of interests” for the vaccine doses to be 1.2 billion. 

Russia’s ‘Sputnik V’, which was approved by authorities on August 11, would be manufactured abroad and then circulated internationally at the earliest by November. However, despite the rapid approach, the vaccine shot would be allowed on getting local regulatory approval before its distribution. Despite Russian President Vladimir Putin self-touting the developed vaccine candidate, the news had triggered a wave of scepticism especially among the Western nations over the “speed with which it was registered”. 

The same media report had also claimed that Russia had completed the tests on a smaller level including as less as 76 volunteers to secure the approval. Based on the data collected at the clinical trials, Russia’s Sputnik V was labelled as ‘safe to use’ and credited for generating an immune response against COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that is believed to be originated from China in December 2019. 

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 51% of promised COVID-19 vaccine doses acquired

As the race for acquiring the potential doses of the vaccine has grown more intense, a recent report by an international anti-poverty nonprofit Oxfam revealed earlier that rich nations including the United States, UK and Japan that represent only 13 per cent of the world’s population have already acquired 51 per cent of the promised doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates. 

Before the health and finance ministers of the G20 countries met to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic, the nonprofit organisation had alerted on the situation based on the agreements struck between the rich nations with the five leading vaccine candidates that are currently in the final stage of clinical trials according to the data collected by Airfinity. Moreover, it also found out that most companies do not have the ability to make enough COVID-19 vaccine does for all the people who require the same. 

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(With ANI inputs)