MOSCOW, July 18. / TASS /. The Russian pharmaceutical company R-Pharm signed an agreement on the production of a coronavirus vaccine developed by the British-Swedish AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. The company plans to supply the drug to 30-50 countries, said the chairman of the board of the Russian company Alexey Repik in an interview with the Rossiya 24 television channel.
“We formalized this intention in the form of a signed agreement on the production and supply of a vaccine that was developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, using R-Pharm’s technological capabilities to implement the project. In addition, R-Pharm will act as a sort of center for supplying vaccines to a large number of countries: to 30, 40, 50 countries, including the countries of the Middle East, including the countries of Southeast Asia, the European countries, of course, the CIS and Russia, ” Repik said.
The pharmaceutical company noted that the vaccine is currently being investigated, which should determine how well it protects against the coronavirus and estimate its safety and immune response in humans.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of the outbreak of previously unknown pneumonia in Wuhan City, central China. Since then, cases of the new coronavirus, named WHO COVID-19, have been reported in all corners of the world, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a pandemic.
