Companies Launch Production of Sputnik V Vaccine in India

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Panacea Biotec, an Indian pharmaceutical company, announced on Monday that the development of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has begun in India.

Panacea Biotec's stock jumped 5% intraday on May 25, a day after the company began development of the Sputnik V vaccine at its Himachal Pradesh factory.

The first batch of doses generated at Panacea Biotec's Baddi facility will be shipped to the Gamaleya Centre in Moscow for "quality control," according to the announcement.

The domestic development of Sputnik V, according to RDIF's chief executive officer Kirill Dmitriev, supports India's efforts to "leave behind the acute process of coronavirus as soon as possible."

Sputnik V has been registered in 66 countries with a combined population of more than 3.2 billion people. Based on a review of data on coronavirus infection rates among those in Russia who were vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020, to March 31, 2021, the efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6 percent.

On April 12, 2021, Sputnik V was registered in India under the emergency use authorization process. RDIF and Panacea declared in April that they would manufacture 100 million doses of Sputnik V per year.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Shilpa Medicare have signed a three-year agreement for the development and supply of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine from Shilpa Medicare's integrated biologics R&D-cum-manufacturing unit in Dharwad, Karnataka.

The RDIF has also collaborated with Dr Reddy's Laboratories in Hyderabad to produce and distribute the vaccine locally.

Sputnik V is the third COVID-19 vaccine to be given to Indians. Covishield and Covaxin, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in Pune and Bharat Biotech Limited in Hyderabad, respectively, have been used in the country's inoculation drive so far.