Belarus plans to launch the full-cycle production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine by the end of the year, Belarusian Health Minister Dmitry Pinevich told journalists on Wednesday before a meeting of the council for health cooperation of the CIS, Trend reports with reference to TASS.
"The full [production] cycle of Sputnik V [is planned] by the end of this year at the facilities of Belmedpreparaty," the health minister noted.
He did not indicate the planned production volumes of Sputnik V noting that the important part is to produce a quality vaccine that would "completely resemble the existing vaccine." The health minister explained that for the full-cycle production of Sputnik V it won’t be difficult to localize the Sputnik Light vaccine which Belarus is currently purchasing. "Its localization will be needed only when it is clear that Sputnik Light will enter mass circulation and it will be economically practicable," he specified.
The health minister noted that "colleagues, strategic partners from the Russian Federation, in addition to Sputnik Light are also developing children’s vaccines on the basis of Sputnik." "This production (following the full cycle in Belarus) should comply with all possible variants of localization and the full-cycle production of a bloc of Sputnik [vaccines]. Then, and this is the indispensable condition of this project, after the pandemic is over, the immunobiological preparation of various applications must be produced there," he noted.