The manufacturing of Sputnik V locally will enable swift access to patients

India will produce over 100 million doses a year of Russia’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine Sputnik V beginning 2021.

According to the director-general of the Gamaleya Research Institute, Moscow, Alexander Gintsburg, this comes following an agreement between the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Hyderabad-based Hetero Biopharma.

“An application has been submitted by RDIF to the World Health Organization (WHO) for accelerated registration (Emergency Use Listing, EUL) and prequalification of Sputnik V,” Gintsburg was quoted as saying in a Hindustan Times report.

As of now, Sputnik V has demonstrated a 91.4% efficacy rate, according to the second interim data analysis of the largest double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 3 clinical trials in Russia’s history involving 40,000 volunteers.

India, along with Brazil, China, South Korea, and others, will provide the vaccine to at least 50 countries that have requested over 1.2 billion doses, said the report.

The report quoted director, international marketing, Hetero Labs Limited B Murali Krishna Reddy as saying that the manufacturing of Sputnik V locally will enable swift access to patients.

“This collaboration is another step towards our commitment in the battle against Covid-19,” she said.

Sputnik V is a human adenovirus-based vaccine candidate and the only late-stage adenovirus-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate to use two different vectors for different injections, human adenovirus types Ad5 and Ad26.

The Hindustan Times report quoted the regional director, WHO Southeast Asia Poonam Khetrapal Singh as saying that vaccines in combination with other tried and tested public health measures will help to end the pandemic.

“The urgency with which vaccines have been developed must be matched by the same urgency to distribute them fairly,” she added.