Suptnik V: Another Indian laboratory will produce 2 …

The Russian Sovereign Fund (RDIF) on Monday announced a agreement with the Indian pharmaceutical group Virchow Biotech for the production of 200 million doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik V against the coronavirus. “Vaccine partnerships are the only way to overcome the pandemic. The world continues to fight the coronavirus, and we are seeing increasing interest in Sputnik V,” said Kirill Dmitriev, director of RDIF.

This agreement is in addition to the one already announced on Friday with another Indian pharmaceutical company, Stelis, to produce 200 million doses. 100 million additional doses were signed in November with the Indian firm Hetero.

“The technology transfer will be completed in the second quarter of 2021, and will be followed by large-scale commercial production,” said RDIF, which has partially funded the development of the vaccine and is negotiating overseas production agreements.

According to RDIF, the Russian vaccine is now approved in 54 countries, covering 1,400 million people. However, Sputnik V is not approved in India, where clinical trials are still ongoing.

Moscow wants diversify the sources of production of your own vaccine. Its capacities are still limited and its priority is to supply the Russian population. Sputnik V was initially greeted with skepticism abroad, but its reliability was validated in February by the scientific journal The Lancet.

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) is currently reviewing your application for type approval.