London, Sep. 25, 2020 (AltAfrica)-South Africa is among seventeen countries that will receive COVID-19 drug, Avifavir from Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and its partner Chemrar, the fund said in a statement on Thursday.

Other beneficiaries include Argentina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Kuwait, Panama, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, the UAE and Uruguay

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Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and its partner Chemrar, have already delivered Avifavir to Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

South Africa announced 77 more Covid-19 related deaths and 1 861 new infections on Wednesday night.

This takes South Africa’s Covid-19 death toll to 16 283, and infections to 667 049.

South Africa has the eighth most Covid-19 infections in the world, behind the USA, Brazil, India, Russia. Peru, Columbia and Mexico.

Avifavir gained approval from the Russian health ministry in May and is based on Favipiravir, which was developed in Japan and is widely used there as the basis for viral treatments.

Clinical trials in Japan and Russia have confirmed those drugs’ efficacy, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement.

Russia is pushing hard to take a global lead in the race against the virus. It is already exporting its COVID-19 tests and has clinched several international deals for supplies of its Sputnik-V vaccine.

Last week Russia approved R-Pharm’s Coronavir treatment for outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections and the company said the antiviral drug could be rolled out to pharmacies in the country as soon as this week.

The RDIF said favipiravir-based drugs are three to four times cheaper than remdesivir, another COVID-19 treatment.

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