Bahrain's sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat Holding Company could soon set up a new facility for the mass production and distribution of the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine for Covid-19 across the Gulf and Mena region.

 

As part of this, Mumtalakat has signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Binnopharm Group, а subsidiary of Sistema, a publicly traded Russian investment company. The trio will explore the establishment of a vaccine production facility in the kingdom.

 

Mumtalakat had in 2014 signed an agreement with RDIF to strengthen economic and investment cooperation between Bahrain and Russia.

 

The MoU aims at promoting the exchange of information and expertise in the sectors and areas of common interest for both entities. 

 

It also sets the overall framework for the identification of and cooperation on mutually beneficial investment prospects investment and co-investment opportunities in Russia and Bahrain.

 

Mumtalakat automatically co-invests with RDIF in all projects with returns on these co-investments exceeding the returns on global indices.

 

"Our partnership with both RDIF and Binnopharm Group will enable 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," remarked Khalid Al Rumaihi, CEO of Mumtalakat.

 

"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," he stated at the signing ceremony held in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) held this week in Russia.

 

Kirill Dimitriev, the chief executive of RDIF, said its collaboration with Mumtalakat goes back a long way and has resulted in a successful co-investment programme as well as a fruitful partnership between our organisations."

 

"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 the vaccine is successfully used to protect the population against Covid," remarked Dimitriev.

 

"Local production will increase our international production capabilities and help other countries of the region to prevent the spread of Covid-19, he added.

 

Dmitry Zubov, the chairman of the board of Binnopharm Group, said that last summer, its 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," he added. 

 

The Sputnik V vaccine is the world’s first registered vaccine against Covid-19 and it was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia.

 

The vaccine is produced with RDIF’s backing and the active support of its international manufacturing partners in India, China and South Korea among other countries.

 

In February, Bahrain had authorised the emergency use of Sputnik V vaccine to become the fourth authorised vaccine in the kingdom.-TradeArabia News Service