In yet another attempt to step up vaccination in the country, Serum Institute of India (SII) along with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) will jointly produce the Russian Sputnik vaccine against coronavirus from September.
According to reports, the first batch of Sputnik vaccines is expected to be produced at SII’s facilities in September and over 300 million doses of Sputnik V vaccines will be produced in India per year.
The development comes days after the drugs controller general of India (DCGI) granted test license to SII to manufacture Sputnik V small batches of vaccines meant for examination, analysis and test purposes at SII it’s Hadapsar facility located in Pune.
“We hope to make millions of doses in the coming months with trial batches starting in the month of September. With high efficacy and a good safety profile, it is critical that the Sputnik vaccine is accessible in full measure for people across India and the world,” SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said.
“This strategic partnership is a major step to substantially increase our production capabilities demonstrating a perfect example of joining forces and expertise to save lives both in India and around the world,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said.
SII is currently manufacturing Covishield, the local version of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Covovax (developed by Novavax) and also holding trials of Codagenix vaccine in the United Kingdom. SII manufactured more than 10 crore doses of covishield in June 2021
According to RDFI, Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 67 countries with a total population of over 3.5 billion people.
Meanwhile, even Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has entered into a partnership with RDFI to market the first 250 doses of Sputnik V in India. The company also announced that commercial launch of the vaccine in India will begin in the coming week.