It is up to the Health Ministry to decide whether to launch the production of foreign vaccines against the novel coronavirus in Russia for domestic use, but the country’s industry is ready to start making them, if need be, Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told the media on January 3, 2022.

He said, when asked if foreign vaccines might be produced next year:

Such decisions are a prerogative of the Health Ministry. Should such a task be set to the industry, we will be able to cope with it. It is a matter of social and economic expediency.

Russia currently has six registered vaccines against the coronavirus: Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac, Sputnik Light, Sputnik M and EpiVacCorona-N. All of them are of Russian manufacture.

None of the producers of foreign vaccines against the coronavirus have applied for the registration of their products in Russia, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said in the middle of December. In the middle of September the pharmaceutical company R-Farm had begun the production of Astra-Zeneca under license for export.