MOSCOW — The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia"s sovereign wealth fund, announces the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus by the Ministry of Health of the State of Palestine. The vaccine was registered under the emergency use authorization procedure without additional clinical trials in the country. Sputnik V had been registered under the same procedure earlier in Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia and Serbia. Sputnik V delivery to Palestine is planned for the first quarter of 2021 with the first batch expected to arrive within a month. Supplies of the vaccine will be facilitated by RDIF"s international partners in India, China, South Korea and other countries. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said: "The Sputnik V vaccine"s high quality and efficacy are stimulating growing interest from more and more countries. This translates into a wider geography of its registration, delivery and production. “We are happy that on top of Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America Sputnik V will now also be present in the Middle East. This will allow us to further combine forces for a quicker joint victory over the coronavirus infection by guaranteeing access to an effective and safe vaccine for more countries and their people." Sputnik V was registered thanks to a number of key advantages: • Efficacy of Sputnik V is over 90%, with full protection against severe cases of COVID-19. • The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years. • Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots. • The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades. • Over 1.5mn people have already been vaccinated with Sputnik V. • The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca on a joint clinical trial to improve the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine. • The Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Russia, Belarus, Serbia, Argentina, Bolivia and Algeria, the process to approve the vaccine in the EU has been initiated. • There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V. • The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure. • The price of Sputnik V is less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world. — PRNewswire