The inauguration of the new plant in Pilar de Richmond, a laboratory that in the most critical times of the pandemic was responsible for producing the Russian vaccine Sputnik V in Argentina, was postponed once again. The latest information published by Clarín indicated that the opening was going to be in March 2023, but now it is projected for the end of the year.
The story began in mid-2021, when the Government approved a trust for the construction of the plant. Then it was said that within a year it could be finished. The first certain date that was handled was October 2022. Then it went to December of that same year and then March of the current.
The data of the new delay arises from the report on the "Project V.I.D.A. (Immunization Vaccine for Argentine Development)", carried out by the risk rating agency Fix SCR, which makes periodic reports on the progress of the plant and reports on the state of the business.
It is a project for 85 million dollars, with the aim of financing the acquisition, installation and start-up of a plant for the production of vaccines, among which are those of Covid.
While the original plan of Richmond was to be the Argentine leg of the Gamaleya Center of Russia, from the Argentine laboratory confirmed that the contract for the manufacture of the Sputnik V vaccine ended. "All the committed production was completed," company sources told Clarín.
The Richmond plant in Pilar began construction in the midst of the pandemic. They say they would finish the work by the end of the year.
The setbacks with Sputnik V apparently did not play in favor of the production of the drug posing a viable horizon. One of those obstacles was the impossibility – without a certain date – of obtaining approval from the World Health Organization, a deficit that left it one step below the rest of the vaccines applied in the country.
What will the Pilar plant produce now that the project of the so-called Sputnik V.I.D.A is finished? "We continue with Cansino for Covid and with other laboratories for influenza, hepatitis, HPV and some more. We will also work for third parties, since it will be one of the most modern plants and with the highest capacity in Latin America," said the laboratory sources.
The containers with the machines when they arrived at the Pilar plant.
The Fix SCR report details that "the plant will also be prepared for the production of other biotechnological products, in order to be able to provide services to different pharmaceutical laboratories with an estimated total capacity of about 80 million vials per year." This would be the equivalent of about 500 million vaccines.
According to the latest report of the rating agency, dated May 3, "all the equipment necessary for the project has already been manufactured" and "is in CIF situation (in port of destination agreed) Buenos Aires. The delay in the release of Customs forces to redefine the date on which its assembly and commissioning would be completed, which is estimated to be at the end of 2023 ".
A machine unpacked after its arrival in trucks from the Port.
However, the Richmond sources consulted confirmed that the machines have already arrived in their entirety at the plant for installation. "All that remains is for the paneling that Senasa is reviewing to arrive," they said. They added: "It was quite late but next year we will be already operational with several vaccine alternatives. After finishing everything, you have to validate processes and authorize it by ANMAT."
The same document of the rating agency accounts for a drop in sales of the laboratory in 2022 due to the end of the contract with Sputnik. It speaks of "a lower portion of sales of Sputnik V vaccines components I and II that represented 14.5 percent or 2,669 million pesos in 2022, while in 2021 it represented 43.5 percent (14,073 million pesos) of total sales and that made real sales fall 42.9 percent in real terms.
Work in the plant for the installation of the machinery that will manufacture the vaccines.
In February 2021, in the midst of the crisis due to the lack of vaccines against Covid, Richmond had signed an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to produce Sputnik V in Argentina. Since then, they have manufactured 9 million doses that were delivered to the Argentine government for distribution.
Despite the interruption of business between Richmond and Russia, on February 13 the Ministry of Health reported that Argentina incorporated "the Sputnik Light vaccine from the Gamaleya Center to initiate, complete primary schemes or, as a booster dose in people over 18 years of age."
Sputnik Light is the first component of the two that complete Sputnik V. An option that the Gamaleya Center found in the face of the production difficulties presented by the second component of the original vaccine. But that's history told.
In Richmond, despite the delays that would end up completing the goal more than a year later than planned, they are very excited about what is coming: "It's going to be the best plant in Latin America, we're going to make all kinds of vaccines. It will be something splendid and a source of pride for the country."
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