Serum to produce Russia's Sputnik V vaccine from September: RDIF CEO

The CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said some other manufactures are also ready to produce this anti-Coronavirus vaccine in India.

Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) will begin production of anti-coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V in September, said the CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev. He said some other manufactures are also ready to produce this vaccine in India.

Sputnik V has, so far, been registered in 67 countries accounting for over 3.5 billion people.

According to a report in AFP, a deal had been struck with SII, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, 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 RDIF said in a statement, adding that SII has received cell and vector samples from Russia's Gamaleya Centre. With their import approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the cultivation process has begun, the Russian sovereign wealth fund said.

Dmitriev described the partnership as example of "key partnership" between countries and producers. The developers are also looking at using a "mix and match" format with AstraZeneca's anti-Covid-19 vaccine, which is being developed and distributed by Serum as Covishield, and hope to publish its findings by end of July.

Dmitriev further said some doses of SII-manufactured Sputnik V will also exported to other countries.

Earlier, the Gamaleya institute said the vaccine is effective against all the new variants of the coronavirus, including Alpha and Delta strains.

Meanwhile, 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 town across the country.