India’s medicine regulator Drugs Controller General of India has cleared Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use in the country. Sputnik V, made by Moscow’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, has become the third vaccine after Serum institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin to get approval from DCGI.
Speaking to media on the issue Kiril Dmitriev, CEO, Russian Direct Investment Fund said that registration of Sputnik V in India
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RDIF has announced production contracts with five leading Indian manufacturers for more than 425 million people-doses of Sputnik V in a year (accounting for more than half of Sputnik V’s global production this year). Phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trial of Sputnik V are held in India. Some Indian production companies have passed quality checks and are already producing Sputnik V right now, ramp up will take a couple of months. “India will be a key hub for production of vaccines in India and for other countries. More than 50 million doses per month will be manufacture in India in the summer,” Dmitriev said and informed that RDIF has recently announced agreement with Panacea Biotec
In addition to India, RDIF has signed a number of contracts securing international production of Sputnik V at around 20 manufacturing sites in more than 10 countries including Brazil, S. Korea, China, Italy, Belarus and Kazakhstan. International production has already started.