The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has said that India has become the 60th country to approve the use of Sputnik V against coronavirus and more than 850 million doses of the vaccine are going to be produced in the country annually.
The
Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has registered the vaccine under the
emergency use authorisation procedure. This is 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.
The
vaccine has been approved for use in countries with a total population of 3
billion people or about 40 per cent of the global population, and India has
become the 60th country to approve Sputnik V, RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth
fund, said in a statement.
India
is also the most populated country to register the vaccine and also the leading
production hub for Sputnik V, it added.
RDIF
CEO Kirill Dmitriev said the approval of the vaccine is a major milestone as
both countries have been developing an extensive cooperation on clinical trials
of Sputnik V in India and its local production.
"The
Russian vaccine has 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," he added.
Noting
that India is a vaccine-manufacturing hub and a strategic partner for
production of Sputnik V, he said RDIF has created partnerships with a number of
India's leading pharmaceutical companies for production of Sputnik V which will
provide for both vaccination of the population in India and global distribution
of the vaccine.
"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," he
said.
According
to the release, RDIF has agreements with India's Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma,
Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech aimed at production of
more than 850 million doses per year.
Sputnik
will be the third vaccine to be used in India against coronavirus. In January,
DCGI had given the emergency use authorisation for two COVID-19 vaccines --
Covaxin of Bharat Biotech and Covishield of Oxford-AstraZeneca manufactured by
Serum Institute of India in Pune.
As per
RDIF, Sputnik V has a number of key advantages, including that there are no
strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.
The
price of the vaccine is less than USD 10 per shot and it uses two different
vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a
longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots,
it added.
Other countries that have approved use of Sputnik V include Argentina, Bolivia, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Mexico, Pakistan, Bahrain and Sri Lanka.
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