Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Indian pharma company Hetero, have mutually agreed to produce over 100 million doses per year of Sputnik V Covid vaccine in India.
In the beginning of 2021, the production of the Russian vaccine is expected to start.
B. Murali Krishna Reddy, Director – International Marketing, Hetero Labs Limited commented, “We are pleased to collaborate with RDIF as a manufacturing partner for the most anticipated Sputnik V vaccine for the treatment of Covid-19. While we look forward to the clinical trial results in India, we believe that manufacturing the product locally is crucial to enable swift access to patients.”
RDIF and Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies, agree to produce over 100 million doses of the #SputnikV vaccine in India
Read more: https://t.co/bJL0Yg60CL
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) November 27, 2020
On November 24, RDIF had announced a positive result acquired during the second provisional data analysis of the largest double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase III clinical trials in Russia, involving 40,000 volunteers.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in a statement said: “We are delighted to announce the agreement between RDIF and Hetero that will pave the way to production of the safe and highly effective Sputnik V vaccine on Indian soil. The vaccine’s interim clinical trial results show 95% efficacy on the 42nd day after the first dose. Thanks to our cooperation with Hetero, we will be able to significantly increase production capacity and provide people of India with an efficient solution in this challenging period of the pandemic.”
Since November 9, at least four drug makers have announced the positive outcomes of their ongoing vaccine trial.
“Currently, Phase III clinical trials are approved and are ongoing in Belarus, the UAE, Venezuela and other countries, while Phase II-III trials are undergoing in India. Requests for more than 1.2 billion doses of Sputnik V vaccine came from more than 50 countries. The vaccine supplies for the global market will be produced by RDIF’s international partners in India, Brazil, China, South Korea and other countries,” the Russian sovereign wealth fund said in a statement.
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