MEXICO CITY, October 8. /TASS/. Mexico’s Birmex, a state-run pharmaceutical corporation, will sign an agreement with Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on the packaging and production of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, the Milenio newspaper reported on Friday.
According to the newspaper, Birmex CEO Pedro Zenteno on Friday left for Moscow to take part in the signing of the corresponding agreements personally. "The packaging process will begin with the implementation of the existing contact with the Mexican government and the RDIF <…>," he told the newspaper. Three batches of vaccines bottled in Mexico were sent to Russia earlier this year.
According to Zenteno, Birmex can package up to two million Sputnik V doses a month but the key goal of future talks is to agree the transfer technologies of the production of a substance for the vaccine manufacturing in Mexico. The country is expected to manufacture 20 million Sputnik V doses a year.
The Mexican regulator issues 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.