Mexico signs agreement with RDIF on packaging Sputnik V vaccine

MEXICO, October 15. /TASS/. Mexico’s Birmex state-run pharmaceutical company has signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on the packaging of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in Mexico, the company wrote on Twitter on Thursday. The company’s chief Pedro Zenteno signed an agreement on cooperation between the RDIF and Birmex that establishes the necessary mechanisms and conditions for the packaging of Sputnik V, the tweet said. Zenteno noted on Twitter that the agreement was aimed at implementing the process of the transfer of necessary technologies and data for the production of the vaccine in the Latin American country. Birmex CEO Pedro Zenteno flew to Moscow for talks last week. Three batches of vaccines bottled in Mexico were sent to Russia earlier. According to Zenteno, up to two million Sputnik V doses a month can be packaged in Mexico monthly. The country is expected to manufacture 20 million Sputnik V doses a year. The Mexican regulator issued an emergency use permit for the Russian vaccine in early February. The first batch if this vaccine was delivered to Mexico from Russia on February 22. By October 14, the country received almost nine million dozes of the Russian coronavirus vaccine.