Iran and Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia's sovereign wealth fund, have been discussing the joint production of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to Iran’s ambassador to Moscow.
"We are holding talks, I spoke with the head of RDIF Kirill Dmitriev, our officials have held several rounds of consultations and we announced that we will co-operate," Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Kazem Jalali as saying.
Russia introduced Sputnik-V as the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine last month. Large-scale trials, known as Phase III trials, involving at least 40,000 people were launched in Russia on August 26.
Russian media reported earlier this month that batches of the vaccines have been shipped for use across Russia and that several countries have applied to acquire the vaccine.
Iran has been researching the production of its own COVID-19 vaccine in the past few months. Iran’s attempts to produce its own vaccine comes as unilateral US sanctions on Tehran, imposed after Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, initially hampered Iran’s access to basic supplies needed to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.