Russian Direct Investment Fund sets target of 50 million doses a month for Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine in India

Photo for representational purpose

More than 50 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine will be produced in India in a month over the summer in partnership with five Indian companies, Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said on Tuesday. Over 850 million doses of Sputnik V are going to be produced in India annually, which will be sufficient to vaccinate more than 425 million people around the world.

India is the leading production hub for Sputnik V. RDIF has reached agreements with the leading pharmaceutical companies in the country, including Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech, aimed at producing more than 850 million doses per year.

Dmitriev said in a media briefing that a big milestone has been reached with India giving approval for the Sputnik V vaccine on April 12. India is the most populated country to register the Russian vaccine. Total population of 60 countries where Sputnik V is approved for use is three billion people or about 40 per cent of the global population.

The vaccine has been registered in India under the emergency use authorisation procedure based on the results of clinical trials in Russia as well as positive data of additional Phase III local clinical trials in India conducted in partnership with Dr. Reddy's Laboratories.

Dmitriev said the approval of the vaccine is a major milestone as Russia and India have been developing extensive cooperation on clinical trials of Sputnik V in India and its local production. The Russian vaccine has an efficacy of 91.6 per cent and provides full protection against severe cases of Covid-19, as demonstrated by the data published in The Lancet, one of the leading medical journals.

Dmitriev said India is a vaccine-manufacturing hub and Russia's strategic partner for production of Sputnik V. RDIF has created partnerships with a number of India's leading pharmaceutical companies for the production of Sputnik V, which will provide for both vaccination of the population in India and global distribution of the Russian vaccine.

He added that the clinical trials showed very high immune response in India and confirmed the very high efficacy of Sputnik V. Dmitriev said that five producers have been announced in India and a couple more will be announced in the next two weeks, including for fill and finish capability. RDIF is not buying equity stake in these companies, but will provide working capital so that they can ramp up quickly. He said some companies are already producing Sputnik V, but the real ramp up of production will take two to three months over the summer.

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