RDIF, Mumtalakat and Binnopharm Group to establish production of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Bahrain

RDIF, Mumtalakat and Binnopharm Group to establish production of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in Bahrain

Saint-Petersburg, June 3, 2021 – The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), Bahrain’s Mumtalakat Holding Company (Mumtalakat, sovereign wealth fund of the Kingdom of Bahrain) and Binnopharm Group (а subsidiary of Sistema PJSFC, a publicly traded Russian investment company) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a new vaccine production facility in the Kingdom of Bahrain to manufacture and distribute the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine across the MENA region.

The MoU was signed on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

In 2014, RDIF and Mumtalakat signed an agreement aimed at strengthening economic and investment cooperation between Russia and Bahrain. Mumtalakat automatically co-invests with RDIF in all projects with returns on these co-investments exceeding the returns on global indices.

As part of cooperation the two funds recently joined efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus and intend to establish a local production of Sputnik V, the world’s first registered vaccine against coronavirus, in Bahrain. Bahrain authorized the emergency use of Sputnik V vaccine In February 2021.

Kirill Dimitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Find (RDIF), said;

“Our collaboration with Mumtalakat goes back a long way and has resulted in a successful co-investment program as well as a fruitful partnership between our organizations. We are delighted to extend our cooperation to establish a production facility in Bahrain to produce Sputnik V - the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine. Sputnik V has been included in Bahrain’s national portfolio in February and is successfully used to protect the population against coronavirus. Local production will increase our international production capabilities and help other countries of the region to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

HE Khalid Al Rumaihi, CEO of Mumtalakat, commented:

“Our partnership with both RDIF and Binnopharm Group will enable the Kingdom of Bahrain to continue to be at the forefront of fighting this pandemic whilst working to further enhance the region’s healthcare sector through the establishment of this facility. As the sovereign wealth fund of Bahrain we continue to look into partnerships and ventures that will add value to our portfolio as well as bring long-term sustainable solutions to the Kingdom and wider region.”

Dmitry Zubov, Chairman of the Board of Binnopharm Group, added:

“Last summer, Binnopharm Group’s pharmaceutical plant in Zelenograd was the first in Russia to launch production of the COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. Over the last year we perfected the technology down to the details and now have a good understanding of how to scale up production of the vaccine. We are happy to share our know-how with other countries to assist them in developing their own production of Sputnik V at scale.”

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

·        Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6% based on the analysis of data on the coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021;

·        The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

·        Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

·        The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

·        There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

·        The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.

·        The price of Sputnik V is less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world.