New Delhi: In a major development, the Serum Institute of India (SII) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Tuesday announced cooperation to produce the Russian SputnikV vaccine in India from September. Accordingly, the parties intend to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India per year with the first batch expected in September.
"I am delighted to partner with RDIF to manufacture the SputnikV vaccine. 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. Give the uncertainty of the virus, it is important for international institutes and governments to collaborate and further bolster up our fight against the pandemic," said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.
Read: Sputnik V effective against Delta, other variants of coronavirus, says RDIF study
In this direction, the technology transfer process has already started. As part of the technology transfer process, SII has already received cell and vector samples from Gamaleya Centre. With their import approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the cultivation process has also begun. India, being the leading production hub for SputnikV, RDIF had earlier reached agreements with a number of pharmaceutical companies in the country like Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma, Virchow Biotech and Morepen for the production of Russian vaccine.
SII believed to be the world's largest company in terms of Covid vaccine productions with over 500 doses manufactured. Through several strategic associations, SII has been front running India's fight against the pandemic. In addition to developing its own vaccine, SII is currently manufacturing Covishield (developed by Astra Zeneca-Oxford), Covavax (by Novavax) and conducting trials of Codagenix in the UK. It may be mentioned here that having an efficacy of 97.6 per cent, the SputnikV vaccine has been registered in 67 countries globally with a total population of over 3.5 bn people.
Read: RDIF: Sputnik V vaccine demonstrates strong safety profile during vaccination campaign in San Marino
