New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec is likely to announce details about its contract with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for the manufacturing of Sputnik V vaccine within 15 days.

Sources told BusinessLine that the company will start production within 60-90 days of the announcement in its three facilities in India.

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Only for export

“The Sputnik V vaccine will be manufactured for export only and not for supply in India. We are in the process of working out the investment it would require, price mechanism and other details of the contract. After making the formal announcement within 15-days, we will begin production in 60-90 days,” a source privy to the matter said.

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In view of massive global shortage of Covid vaccine, it seems that the government will approve export of Sputnik V to meet the requirement, the source said when asked about the approval for export when India itself is facing supply crunch.

When asked whether the company is late in bringing out the vaccine to the market, the source said considering the global requirement of vaccine in the backdrop of upsurge in pandemic cases during the second wave, the company is very much on time. No one had ever imagined that the second wave would be faster in its spread than the previous one.

Sputnik V at Panacea Biotec sites will be supplied to the international partners of RDIF. The company has production facilities at Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Lalru (Punjab) and Delhi. Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and most respected medical journals, the company had said in a release on April 5.

RDIF has also partnered other Indian pharmaceutical companies including Stelis Biopharma, Gland Pharma and Virchow Biotech Private Limited for the manufacturing of Sputnik V.

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