The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced on Tuesday that Nepal would receive 25 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, enabling 90 percent of the South Asian country’s population to have access to the vaccine, Sputnik News reported.
“RDIF … and one of the leading pharmaceutical distributors in Nepal, Trinity Pharmaceuticals, have agreed to supply to the country 25 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine based on a well-studied human adenoviral vectors platform. The agreement will enable 90% of the population of Nepal to get access to Sputnik V vaccine and provide country’s clinics with an anti-COVID vaccine with proven safety and efficacy,” RDIF said in a press release.
According to the press release, Trinity Pharmaceuticals Director Kishor Adhikari pledged that the vaccine would be made available for the population immediately after being approved by the government.
“We see a strong interest from other partners in Asia. In this regard, RDIF is ready to supply Sputnik V vaccine to the countries of the region as novel coronavirus infection is our common enemy which can be defeated only by joining our efforts,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said, as quoted in the press release.
On 11 August, Russia registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine – Sputnik V – developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, following two successful phases of clinical trials, which led to all the volunteers developing an immunity against the virus. Sputnik V is currently undergoing post-registration trials, with over 42,000 volunteers participating in the testing in multiple countries.
