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The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is in talks with Turkey on the joint production of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, Russian Ambassador to Ankara, Alexei Yerkhov told Sputnik in an interview.

In late January, the RDIF, which promotes Sputnik V in international market, signed an agreement with a leading Turkish pharmaceuticals developer to produce the Russian vaccine in Turkey and started the transfer of technologies. Turkey could reportedly produce millions of  Sputnik V vaccine doses per year.

"The RDIF has certain agreements with Turkish partners. But you need to understand that each country - and Turkey is no exception - has its own legislation governing the procedure for official registration of the import and use of medicines, especially those manufactured abroad. It is also important because the possibility of joint production of the Sputnik V vaccine in Turkey is being worked out. So the work is underway, negotiations are continuing," Yerkhov said.

Earlier in February, peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet published an interim analysis from the phase 3 trial of the Sputnik V vaccine, showing that it is 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19. The trial is not over but the vaccine has been approved for use in a number of countries including Belarus, Serbia, Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, the UAE, Iran, Guinea, Tunisia and Armenia.