New Delhi: Providing a boost to the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive in India, one of the country’s leading vaccine and pharmaceutical firms combined hands with Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and began the making of Sputnik V in India on Monday.
RDIF said in a statement that the Russian Direct Investment Fund in collaboration with Delhi’s Panacea Biotec will produce 100 million doses of Sputnik V, the world’s first certified vaccine against coronavirus, every year.
The first batch produced by Panacea Biotec’s facilities at Baddi will be sent to the Gamaleya, the Moscow institute which produced the vaccine, for quality check. The Indian manufacturer’s facilities comply with GMP standards and are prequalified by the World Health Organisation (WHO), read RDIF’s statement.
BREAKING: RDIF and Panacea Biotec launch the production of Sputnik V in India. #India's @PanaceaBiotec now to produce 100 million doses of #SputnikV per year
?https://t.co/zgd0WYNxkV pic.twitter.com/ZNeU4Aqi46— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) May 24, 2021
The Sputnik V vaccine was given consent for emergency use in India on April 12 this year and vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine started on May 14.
“Launch of production in India in partnership with Panacea Biotec marks an important step in helping the country fight the pandemic. Production of Sputnik V supports efforts of India’s authorities to leave behind the acute phase of coronavirus as soon as possible while the vaccine will also be exported at a later stage to help prevent the spread of the virus in other countries around the world,” RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said.
“This marks a significant step as we initiate production of Sputnik V. Together with RDIF, we hope to help bring a sense of normalcy back to people across the country and around the world,” Panacea Biotec MD, Dr Rajesh Jain, said.
So far, Sputnik V has been recorded in 66 countries across the world with a total population of over 3.2 billion people. The efficacy of the vaccine is stated to be 97.6%, according to data on the Covid-19 infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V.
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