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The availability of Russian Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik V, will get a boost with the local production of the vaccine set to commence in September.
The efforts of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd, the brand custodian of Sputnik in India, to have the vaccine produced indigenously are on the track and production will commence soon. As of now, Sputnik V is being imported from Russia for the Indian market.
“We are working closely with our partners in India for manufacturing readiness. We expect that locally manufactured doses are likely to be available from the September-October period,” a spokesperson of Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s told BusinessLine on Tuesday.
“We have received 31.5 lakh doses of component 1 and 4.5 lakh doses of component 2 of the Sputnik V vaccine in India so far. We are working closely with the RDIF to ramp up supplies,” said the spokesperson.
Production tie-up
In July, RDIF had announced a production tie-up with Serum Institute to produce 300 million doses annually. Earlier, it had entered into similar pacts with Hetero, and Gland Pharma, among others.
India is now a hub for Sputnik V production and RDIF has already hinted that the vaccine produced in India may also cater to global supply requirements apart from catering to Indian needs.
Sputnik V is a double-dose vaccine to be taken with an interval of 21 days after the first dose and has an efficacy of 91.6 per cent.
As of now, it is one of the three major vaccines being administered in India, along with Serum Institute’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
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