India may start producing Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, says Putin

The Russian president has also proposed speeding up of creation of vaccine research centres in BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, news agency Reuters reported.

India is set to join the list of nations who are likely to start producing Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19, Russian president Vladmir Putin said on Tuesday.

A nurse prepares Russia's "Sputnik-V" vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) for inoculation at a clinic in Tver, Russia. (REUTERS)

China is also among the countries expected to take up Sputnik V’s production, Putin said. The Russian president has also proposed speeding up of creation of vaccine research centres in BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, news agency Reuters reported quoting TASS.

Marking their feat in the league of nations to have come up with Covid-19 vaccines, Russia announced in August that it had registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V -- named after the Soviet-era satellite. However, Russia registered the vaccine ahead of large-scale clinical trials.

The nation had claimed that its vaccine is 92 per cent effective at protecting people from Covid-19 according to interim trial results. results are only the second from a late-stage human trial, following on swiftly from data released by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, which said their shot was also more than 90 per cent effective.

While successful vaccines are being eyed by nations across the globe, who have been dealt a blow by the coronavirus pandemic resulting in battered economies, unemployment across nations and over-burdened public health systems, in addition to disruption of daily life cycle, experts have raised their doubts about Russia’s vaccine trial, dubbing the design as sparse, making it hard to interpret the data.