Talks on supplying the prospective Russian vaccine against COVID-19 to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries are ongoing, and will continue after the vaccine is registered, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2020) Talks on supplying the prospective Russian vaccine against COVID-19 to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries are ongoing, and will continue after the vaccine is registered, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told Sputnik on Friday.A vaccine produced by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology is currently in Phase 2 of clinical trials and Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev has said that plans are underway for the vaccine to enter use in either August or September.
"Some negotiations are currently underway within the global cooperation framework, and they will be continued especially after the vaccine is registered. Then there will be more active cooperation. Right now, there are also ongoing parallel preparations to scale up the manufacturing [of the vaccine]. I would like to stress that as this is a new vaccine, we are planning to a kind of gradual introduction of it," Murashko said when asked about talks with the SCO countries regarding the vaccine supplies.
Earlier in the day, Indonesia's Ambassador to Russia Mohamad Wahid Supriyadi told Sputnik that his government would like to purchase the vaccine when it is ready.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization, currently comprising eight member states, namely China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It also has four observer states Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia. The organization's dialogue partners include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
