New Delhi (NVI): Russia has signed an agreement to produce over 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Sputnik V, in India, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said today.
The agreement to produce vaccine has been jointly signed between Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies, Hetero Drugs.
“Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), and Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies (through its biologics arm “Hetero Biopharma”) have agreed to produce in India over 100 million doses per year of the world’s first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection – Sputnik V, ” RDIF said in statement.
The companies intended to start the production of ‘Sputnik V’ in the beginning of 2021, it added.
On November 24, the Gamaleya Center and RDIF announced the results of the second interim data of the world’s first registered vaccine candidate ‘Sputnik V’ vaccine against COVID-19.
According to the results of the second interim analysis of the clinical trials, the vaccine has proven to be 91.4 percent effective 28 days after the injection of the first dose and 95 percent effective 42 days after the injection of the first dose, the RDIF further said.
“I am confident that Sputnik V should become an integral part of the national vaccine portfolio of every country willing to protect its population from the coronavirus. Thanks to our cooperation with Hetero, we will be able to significantly increase production capacity and provide people of India with an efficient solution in this challenging period of the pandemic,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF said in a statement.
Currently, Phase III clinical trials are approved and are ongoing in Belarus, the UAE, Venezuela and other countries, as well as Phase II-III in India, the statement read.
“Requests for more than 1.2 billion doses of Sputnik V vaccine came from more than 50 countries,” it added.
In addition, the vaccine supplies for the global market will be produced by RDIF’s international partners in India, Brazil, China, South Korea and other countries.
Murali Krishna Reddy, Director, Hetero Labs Limited said, “We are pleased to collaborate with RDIF as a manufacturing partner for the most anticipated Sputnik V vaccine for the treatment of Covid-19. While we look forward to the clinical trial results in India, we believe that manufacturing the product locally is crucial to enable swift access to patients.”
“This collaboration is another step towards our commitment in the battle against Covid-19 and realizing the objective of ‘Make-in-India’ campaign as envisioned by our Hon’ble Prime Minister of India,” he added.
However, the uniqueness of the Russian vaccine lies in the use of two different vectors based on the human adenovirus, which allows for a stronger and longer-term immune response as compared to vaccines using one and the same vector for two doses, the statement added.
-RJV
