* Serbia wants to produce Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine - president (Adds details)
BELGRADE, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Serbia will invest as much as necessary to start domestic production of Russia’s Sputnik V by the end of the year, President Aleksandar Vucic told Reuters on Friday.
With over 530,000 people, or around 7.5% of its population, inoculated against COVID-19, Serbia globally holds the fourth highest vaccination rate per 100 people, behind Israel, Britain and the United States.
Under the state vaccination programme, Serbians can currently choose between shots from Pfizer Inc-BioNTech, , China’s Sinopharm or Russia’s Sputnik V.
“At the moment we do not have (production) capacities (for Sputnik V) but we will build it. It does not matter how much it will cost, we will invest,” he said.
The Balkan country expects to get 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine this month, 500,000 Sinopharm vaccines, around 90,000 doses developed by Pfizer Inc-BioNTech and “first quantities from over 100,000 shots” produced by AstraZeneca .