CNN has obtained the exclusive right to use the facility, which is now home to Generium Pharmaceuticals. The plant has signed a contract to expand the production of Russian vaccines against Covid-19, Sputnik V.
The huge high-tech park is one of the seven new production centers in the country.
Every step in the production process, including the huge water filtration system, must be carefully designed and calibrated in order to mass produce this new vaccine.
Generium Chief Scientific Officer Dmitry Poteryaev told CNN: “In principle, the manufacturing process is known on a small laboratory scale, but manufacturing on a large-scale industrial scale is another area.”
He explained: “You can’t simply change from a one-liter bioreactor to a 100-liter or 1,000 or one-ton bioreactor. Each process is different, the amount of oxygenation is different, and the mass balance is different.”
He said that these problems have been resolved a few months ago and the factory is now preparing to further increase production.
Poteryaev said: “Now, we produce millions of doses every month, hoping to get higher doses, for example, about 10 or 200 million per month.”
In the underground walk-in refrigerator, which is even colder than Russia’s cold winter, Sputnik V vials are packed in crates, waiting to be distributed. We were told that each medicine bottle has its own unique QR code, so no matter where they are, every patient can be traced.
Hesitating at home
This country has one of the highest number of Covid-19 infections in the world-more than 4.1 million cases. But this is also one of the countries with the highest vaccine hesitation rate in the world. A poll recently published by the independent Levada Center showed that only 38% of Russians would be vaccinated.
Earlier this month, one of the key scientists who developed the vaccine stated that approximately 2.2 million people (less than 2% of the Russian population) received at least two initial doses of the injection protocol.
Surveillance groups claim that anti-vaccine conspiracy theories are all the rage on the Internet and have attracted the attention of millions of people in Russia. Alexander Arkhipova, a social anthropologist at a state university called RANEPA, told CNN that many Russians have a cultural tendency to distrust the medical institution, which is regarded as the government The control agency interfered with people’s private lives.
Another reason for doubt may be that when President Putin Vladimir Putin said that his daughter had been vaccinated, he had not shot.
The Kremlin has evaded the question of why Putin plans to vaccinate and said that when Putin is finally vaccinated, the country will be notified.
But in this country, many people seek leadership from the Kremlin strongman, so his restraint on the Sputnik V front is fascinating and frustrating.
Ice cream incentives
Now, all adults without basic health conditions in Russia can get the vaccine for free. But, for example, progress in Moscow is very slow. According to Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, in a city with a population of over 12 million people, fewer than 600,000 people have been vaccinated so far.
Therefore, efforts have been made to increase the number.
Pop-up clinics are being established throughout Moscow-the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in Russia.
There is one of the high-end shopping mall GUM, just a few steps from the snowy Red Square. Here, Muscovites can peruse the latest fashions in expensive boutiques and then go upstairs to buy SputnikV. vanilla.
The staff told CNN that they are vaccinating 200 people every day. There are hundreds of capacities.
Another clinic has been established in the trendy food hall Moscow Depo to encourage vaccination after street food lunch or sushi dinner.
For classical music lovers, there is even a theater in the prestigious Moscow Opera House Helikon. When people wait for the vaccination, the tenor in the recording plays in the auditorium in a low-key manner.
Some people get the message that vaccines are their best chance to survive a pandemic.
84-year-old Vadim Svistunov (Vadim Svistunov) and his 86-year-old wife Nonna (Nona) went to the opera house to receive the initial vaccination and booster immunization three weeks later.
Svistunov gestured towards the sky and said to CNN: “We don’t want to go up yet.” He said, “We are not in a hurry.”
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