Serum Institute to start Sputnik V production in Sep

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Serum Institute of India (SII) on Tuesday announced plans to start producing of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V against the coronavirus, with the first batch to be produced at SII's facilities in September.

The companies intend to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine in India per year.

As part of the technical transfer process, SII has already received cell and vector samples from the Gamaleya Center, which developed the Sputnik V jab. After the approval by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the cultivation process has begun.

"This strategic partnership is a major step to substantially increase our production capabilities demonstrating a perfect example of joining forces and expertise to save lives both in India and around the world," said Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of RDIF, in a statement.

"We hope to make millions of doses in the coming months with trial batches starting in the month of September,” said Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of Serum Institute of India.

Sputnik V was registered in India under the emergency use authorisation procedure on 12 April and vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine started on 14 May. It was the third vaccine to be cleared for immunisation programme in India after Covaxin and Covishield.

The Sputnik V is two-shot and studies have shown it to be 97.6 per cent effective against Covid-19. It is priced less than $10 per shot.

India is the leading production hub for production of Sputnik vaccine. RDIF had earlier reached agreements with a number of pharmaceutical companies in India–Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma, Virchow Biotech and Morepen–for production of the Russian vaccine.