Science

Mexico gets Russian vaccine Sputnik V

Our Bureau Mumbai | Updated on February 23, 2021

Containers with the first batch of Sputnik V vaccine on arrival, February 22, 2021, at Benito Juarez International airport, Mexico   -  Reuters

Has the third largest number of deaths from Covid-19

Mexico has become the first North American country to approve and get a batch of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V.

Announcing delivery of the consignment, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said on Tuesday that the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk of Mexico (COFEPRIS) approved Sputnik V under the emergency use authorisation procedure without additional clinical trials in the country.

Dr. Reddy’s initiates process for EUA of Sputnik V

Mexico has the third highest number of deaths from Covid-19, at over 1.8 lakh, and over 20 lakh confirmed cases, according to the Johns Hopkins University. The US and Brazil have the highest and second highest number of deaths. India stands fourth on this list, behind Mexico.

Production alliance

Sputnik V is presently approved for use in more than 30 countries making the vaccine one of the world’s top three coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals issued by regulatory authorities, the RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, said.

Mexico receives 8 lakh AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine from India

India’s Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has an alliance on this vaccine to undertake late-stage trials in the country, while Hetero Biopharma has a production alliance.

With an efficacy of over 91 per cent, Sputnik V vaccine is based on a well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years. It uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots, according to the RDIF.

Follow us on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Linkedin. You can also download our Android App or IOS App.

Published on February 23, 2021
vaccines and immunisation
Covid-19
Mexico
  1. Comments will be moderated by The Hindu Business Line editorial team.
  2. Comments that are abusive, personal, incendiary or irrelevant cannot be published.
  3. Please write complete sentences. Do not type comments in all capital letters, or in all lower case letters, or using abbreviated text. (example: u cannot substitute for you, d is not 'the', n is not 'and').
  4. We may remove hyperlinks within comments.
  5. Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection.