850,000 insulin vials arrive in Venezuela from Russia - MPPRE

850,000 insulin vials arrive in Venezuela from Russia

As part of the Strategic Trade Alliance endorsed in 2019 between Russia and Venezuela at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a shipment of 850,000 vials of 4 types of insulin arrived in the South American country on Friday.

This is the eighth and ninth cargo of medicines sent by Russia.

At the Simón Bolívar International Airport, in La Guaira State, Venezuela’s Vice-minister for Europe Yván Gil explained that this delivery was possible thanks to the agreement signed between the Ministry of People’s Power for Health, through the Socialist Company for the Production of Biological Medicines (Espromed BIO), and Russia’s Geropharm.

Gil said “Geropharm, based in St. Petersburg, is one of the most modern companies known today and it has made possible the supply of more than 2,200,000insulin vials.”

The Venezuelan vice-minister also pointed out that a total of 50 tons of medical supplies have been sent thanks to the agreements between the Bolivarian Government and the Russian Federation within the framework of the High-Level Intergovernmental Commission (CIAN, in Spanish).

Likewise, Gil said he was pleased with the arrival of this shipment, “especially for the insulin-dependent population.”

“We will continue working amid the pandemic and the worst global health crisis humankind has known in the last 100 years,” he said.

In that same vein, Vice-minister of Resources, Technology and Regulation of the Health Ministry, Gerardo Briceño, said the Venezuelan Government continues working and providing support through international agreements in order to improve the quality of life of insulin-dependent patients and the health of the Venezuelan people despite the economic blockade imposed on the country.

“Thanks to these agreements, we have been able to provide care to our insulin-dependent patients, and we will continue to do so because this is a broad cooperation (…) It is not only the supply of insulin, but also the possibility at some point of having our own insulin production in the country,” said Briceño.

In this regard, he said the Russian-Venezuelan alliance is based on “a cooperation that’s really worth encouraging: health cooperation to help patients, to improve the health of our people. That’s the kind of work we expect from our allies.”

Briceño also explained that the goal of this alliance is to achieve cooperation in supply, registration, trade, distribution, quality control and implementation of pharmacovigilance, technology transfer of finished pharmaceutical forms of human insulin and analogues of human insulin (filling and formulation of human insulins) between Geropharm and the Ministry of Popular Power for Health.

Noteworthily, Sergey Melik-Bagdasarov, ambassador of the Russian Federation to Venezuela, attended the reception of this shipment.

? Acabamos de entregar al Gobierno Bolivariano de Venezuela @MinSaludVE ? en el Aeropuerto Internacional de Simón Bolivar, Maiquetía una nueva carga de insulina ? (más de 850 mil dosis) de la companía rusa ? GEROFARM ????? ¡FUERA LAS SANCIONES ILÍCITAS! ✊ pic.twitter.com/8kbtHukfgm— EMB₽V_Sergio (@EmbSergio) September 4, 2020

Entrega de insulina por parte de la Federación de Rusia