{"id":565670,"date":"2021-04-22T13:25:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2021\/04\/22\/minapharm-to-manufacture-sputnik-v-in-egypt\/"},"modified":"2021-04-22T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T13:25:10","slug":"minapharm-to-manufacture-sputnik-v-in-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterpriseam.com\/egypt\/2021\/04\/22\/minapharm-to-manufacture-sputnik-v-in-egypt\/","title":{"rendered":"Minapharm to manufacture Sputnik V in Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Minapharm<\/a><\/strong> will manufacture in Egypt some 40 mn doses per year of <\/strong>Russia\u2019s Sputnik V vaccine <\/strong>under an agreement with Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF, the company said in a statement<\/a>. The two sides are due to start the transfer of technology immediately, with an eye to rolling out the vaccines in 3Q2021, Minapharm said.<\/p>\n

The jabs will be produced in Minapharm\u2019s biotech facility in Cairo and will be earmarked <\/strong>for \u201cglobal distribution,\u201d<\/strong> the company added, noting that the 40-mn-dose production mark can potentially be exceeded in the future.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how much of the output, if any, will be sold in Egypt<\/strong>. The word \u201cglobal\u201d would suggest Egypt is included and the jab is already approved for use here<\/a>. Health Minister Hala Zayed said after a meeting<\/a> with Russian Ambassador Georgiy Borisenko this week that surplus doses of Sputnik V vaccines manufactured by Egyptian companies domestically could potentially be exported into Africa, but also said they\u2019ll be used to help meet domestic demand.<\/p>\n

We asked Minapharm to confirm whether the jab would be distributed here at home<\/strong>, but a company official said that only CEO Wafik Bardissi could comment and that he was unable to come to the phone.<\/p>\n

Russia says Sputnik V has a 97.6% effectiveness rate<\/strong>, basing its findings on an analysis of transmission among Russian recipients, according to the Minapharm statement. This is over 5 percentage points higher than a 91.6% rate that had earlier been reported during the vaccine\u2019s Phase 3 clinical trials. By contrast, China\u2019s Sinovac \u2014 which Egypt could also begin manufacturing<\/a> at state-owned Vacsera\u2019s facilities \u2014 has an efficacy rate of 50.4%, although it claims to prevent 100% of serious cases that would have resulted in hospitalization and death.<\/p>\n

<\/a> NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON: Egypt lags other frontier and emerging markets when it <\/strong>comes to the vaccine rollout, <\/strong>with an average of only 28 doses administered daily per 1 mn people, EFG Hermes said in a note to clients out today. Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam also all have fewer than 100 daily doses per 1 mn people, consistent with a general trend that \u201chigher income countries have made more progress in terms of [per capita] vaccine rollouts,\u201d EFG\u2019s Simon Kitchen and Farah Hamza wrote. The note covers 26 frontier emerging markets on EFG\u2019s radar across the Middle East, Africa, South America, South Asia and Central Asia, and parts of Europe.<\/p>\n

Among those countries, the UAE (by far) maintains the highest vaccination rate, <\/strong>having administered 9.9 mn doses to a population of c. 10 mn and moving at a rate of 8.3k doses a day per 1 mn people. Other high-income countries including most GCC countries are also ahead, while Morocco is doing surprisingly well given it\u2019s a \u201crelatively low-income\u201d country, EFG said.<\/p>\n

MEANWHILE, the US has officially put Egypt and <\/strong>115 other countries<\/a><\/strong> on its <\/strong>\u2018Level 4: Do<\/a><\/strong>Not Travel\u2019<\/a><\/strong> list<\/strong> after reports this week<\/a> that Washington would extend the list to include around 80% of countries at risk of covid-19.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that US citizens will be prohibited from coming to Egypt<\/strong>, but rather the US State Department uses the categorization to advise people on what countries or territories are safe and how much caution should be heeded.<\/p>\n

All this comes as Egypt\u2019s vaccination program has been slowly gathering pace in recent <\/strong>months, <\/strong>with the government set to get its hands on 4.5 mn doses<\/a> of the Oxford \/ AstraZeneca jab by the end of May after having secured at least 1.6 mn doses<\/a> of different types of vaccines for its 100 mn-strong population since December.<\/p>\n

Other covid headlines worth noting this afternoon:<\/strong><\/p>\n