The Russian vaccine named Sputnik V (from the CCCP space program of the same name) is ready for another mission in Nicaragua after receiving approval from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health (MINSA) as a vaccination against Covid-19.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, the RDIF (a Sovereign Wealth Fund) announced the news that Nicaragua had registered the vaccine for use today, the 3rd of February 2021, giving hope to the population of this Central American Nation that this could be the beginning of the end of this pandemic.
As reported by Nica-Biz in last month’s article on this same subject; Russia Offers Sputnik V, Piotr Pankrátov, the Russian Trade Representative to Nicaragua announced that an agreement in principal had been reached whereby Nicaragua would receive the vaccine developed in Moscow, “the first COVID-19 vaccine to be registered anywhere in the world”.
In addition to Russia, Six Latin American countries have now approved Sputnik V for use under emergency procedures and registered without further clinical trials. Originally it was Belarus, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia and Armenia. Nicaragua can now be added to the 5 names in the region already registered; Mexico, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela and Paraguay for a total of 18 countries under the Sputnik V program.
There are high hopes for this vaccine, especially as the list of positive factors is particularly appealing to developing nations. Among those factors;
Effectiveness
The efficiency of the vaccine (over 91%) has been reported in respectable medical publications such as The Lancet. They reported that “Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19”.
Surprisingly, Sputnik V uses a relatively simple and well-studied platform of “human adenoviral vectors”, which over the years have been proven in over 250 clinical studies. The “two shot” process of immunization has shown to provide a longer immunity than other comparable vaccines using a similar biological process and with no serious allergic reactions.
Price and Delivery
Probably the most important factor for the region is the fact that Sputnik V only needs a storage temperature of plus +2 to +8 Centigrade for a “Freeze Dried” version. This is important for Nicaragua as this means it can be safely kept in a regular refrigerator. Pricing is quoted at about $10 per shot, therefore $20 per person for the two shot deal.
There is no word yet if the vaccine could or will be produced at the Instituto Latinoamericano de Biotecnología Mechniko (Mechnikov Latin American Institute of Biotechnology) in Managua, the Russian-Nicaraguan flagship laboratory in Managua, Nicaragua.
COVAX
Nicaragua still has a foot in the COVAX camp, the World Health Organization (WHO) program designed to rapidly develop and manufacture COVID-19 vaccines in a fair and equitable manner.
