India will have the main production hubs of the Sputnik V vaccine, followed by South Korea and China, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said on Tuesday. “By the end of summer, we expect to manufacture 50 million doses or more in India,” he told reporters via an online media conference
“We are looking at partnerships with large pharmaceutical firms in India and will announce it soon… not just for production but for fill and finish capability as well,” he said. “Partnership with India is very important for us and we will be ramping up production”.
While lauding the decision of India’s regulatory bodies to grant authorisation for Sputnik V, Dmitriev said that approval of the vaccine was a major milestone as Russia and India have been developing extensive cooperation on clinical trials of Sputnik V in India and its local production. The phase II and III clinical trials conducted in India showed good results, he said.
Dmitriev also spoke of Russia’s unique partnership approach. “Vaccines should not be political. We are very happy that there are 60 countries where Sputnik has been approved,” he said.
Earlier, a statement by RDIF had said that over 850 million doses of Sputnik V are going to be produced in India annually, sufficient to vaccinate more than 425 million people around the world.
India has become the 60th country to approve use of Sputnik V. The total population of 60 countries where Sputnik V is approved for use is 3 billion, or about 40 per cent of the global population. RDIF has reached agreements with leading pharmaceutical companies in the country — Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma, Virchow Biotech — aimed at production of more than 850 million doses per year.
The vaccine has been recommended by an expert panel for emergency use based on results of clinical trials in Russia as well as positive data of additional phase III local clinical trials in India, conducted in partnership with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, said Dmitriev.
The Russian vaccine has been found to have efficacy of 91.6 per cent and provides full protection against severe cases of Covid-19, as demonstrated by the data published in one of the leading medical journals, The Lancet.
