The Russian vaccine Sputnik V will be produced at the manufacturing units of Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) from September this year. At present, Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which was the first to sign a deal with the Russian manufacturers to distribute and then locally produce the vaccine in India, has made a soft-launch of the doses in 50 cities and towns across the country.
However, the SII which is the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume is likely to produce 300 million doses annually. “The parties intend to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India per year with the first batch expected in September 2021,” the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a statement, adding that SII has received cell and vector samples from Russia’s Gamaleya Centre.
The SII is currently manufacturing Covishield, the local version of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Covovax (developed by Novavax) and conducting trials of Codagenix in the UK. The first batch of the Sputnik vaccine is expected to be produced at the SII’s facilities in September, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII, said.
Sputnik V — also known as Gam-COVID-Vac — was the first Covid-19 vaccine to be registered for use in any nation, and it has since been approved in 67 countries, including Brazil, Hungary, India and the Philippines.
