By Alexander Winning and Joe Bavier
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – The African Union (AU) vaccination team said on Friday that Russia had offered 300 million doses of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine along with a financing package for countries wishing to secure vaccines.
The Russian vaccine will be available for a period of 12 months from May 2021, the agency said in a statement. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said that some deliveries could start in May, but most would start in June.
The 55-member AU expects to see 60% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people immunized over the next three years. But even with some nations richer in their immunization campaigns, only a handful of countries in Africa have started implementing vaccination programs.
“We are grateful to receive the Sputnik V vaccines from the Russian Federation and tremendously proud to be able to offer them … to our AU Member States,” said John Nkengasong, director of the AU’s disease control body, in the statement.
“Bilateral and private sector partnerships like these are essential in our efforts to end the COVID-19 pandemic,” added Nkengasong.
The AU previously said it had secured 270 million doses of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for delivery this year.
On Friday, the vaccine team said that all 270 million doses were “taken by the first allocation phase.”
Russia marketed the Sputnik V vaccine globally. It signed manufacturing agreements with companies in India, South Korea and Brazil, and pledged to supply doses to countries like Venezuela and Hungary.
The offer to the AU, if delivered in full, would be among the largest foreign supply deals to date.
While Moscow is promoting such agreements to highlight its role in fighting the pandemic, vaccine exports have raised concerns in Russia, where officials have struggled to implement a vaccination strategy across the country.
In Africa, Algeria is already implanting the Sputnik V vaccine. And after receiving an initial batch of a few dozen injections, Guinea is now in negotiations to obtain some 400,000 doses, said a health ministry official on Thursday. .
South Africa’s health ministry said this week that Sputnik V manufacturers sent documentation to the local drug regulator for registration.
(Additional reporting by Polina Ivanova in Moscow; Gareth Jones edition)