RDIF, Virchow Biotech ink pact to produce Sputnik V vaccine in India

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Hyderabad-based Virchow Biotech on Monday announced an agreement to produce up to 200 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine in India.

The technology transfer is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021 followed by full-scale commercial production of Sputnik V, RDIF and Virchow Biotech said in a joint statement.

Virchow Biotech capacities will help facilitate the global supply of Sputnik V to international partners of RDIF, it added.

"Vaccine partnerships are the only way to overcome the pandemic. The world continues its fight against coronavirus and we see a growing interest in the Sputnik V vaccine as it is one of the most efficient vaccines available. The agreement with Virchow Biotech is an important step to facilitate the full-scale local production of the vaccine in India and to supply our international partners globally," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said.

According to the statement, the efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6 percent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet.

"We are glad to sign a cooperation agreement with RDIF to produce the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine. Virchow's proven capabilities in large scale drug substance manufacturing should help meet the global demand for this vaccine", Virchow Biotech MD Tummuru Murali said.

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On March 19, RDIF and India's Stelis Biopharma said they have partnered to produce and supply a minimum of 200 million doses of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.

Sputnik V has been registered in 54 countries globally with a total population of over 1.4 billion people. The efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6 percent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals.

The vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and 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.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context.)