Argentina Receives 132 Gallons Of Sputnik V 2nd Component's Active Substance - Laboratory

BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th July, 2021) Argentina received 500 liters (132 gallons) of active substance for the production of the second component of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, the Argentine Richmond Laboratory said on Twitter.

"Today, another 500 liters [of the active substance] of the Sputnik V second component arrived in our country, which will allow us to continue producing approximately 760,000 doses. Soon they will be available to our people," the laboratory said.

Earlier this month, the Richmond laboratory announced that it had completed the production of the first 153,441 doses of the second component of the Sputnik V vaccine, stating plans to produce more.

In March of this year, Argentina's authorities started to immunize citizens only with the first shot of Sputnik V, while the second phase of vaccination was postponed for three months.

On July 7, the Argentine government sent a letter to the Russian Direct Investment Fund, responsible for marketing Sputnik V overseas. The letter said that the Latin American country urgently needed the second component of the vaccine, which is different from the first dose, and warned that the supply agreement was at risk.

Argentina became the first Latin American country both to authorize the use of the Sputnik V vaccine and to localize production. In April, it announced plans to produce 4-5 million doses of Russia's vaccine monthly and expects to ramp up yearly production to 500 million doses.

Currently, vaccines approved for use in Argentina include Sputnik V, Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Covishield, and China's Convidecia and Sinopharm.