Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. has partnered with the Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) for clinical trials and distribution of Sputnik V vaccine in India. Under the agreement, RDIF shall supply to Dr Reddy’s 100 million doses of the vaccine in late 2020.
“India is amongst most severely impacted countries from COVID 19 and we believe our human adenovirus dual vector platform will provide a safe and scientifically validated option to India in the battle against COVID 19,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
On 11th August 2020, the Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology was registered by the Russian Ministry of Health and became the world’s first registered vaccine against COVID-19 based on the human adenoviral vectors platform.
Before the supply, the vaccine has to clear human testing and registration procedure with the Indian regulatory authorities. The British Peer to peer review journal ‘The Lancet’ mentions that the data submitted by the Russian agency will not be enough for agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency to approve the vaccine.
Russia has announced the development of a second COVID-19 vaccine, which provides immunity for 6 months, by the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology called the Vector Research Center. The new vaccine forms an immune response among a wide variety of coronavirus types said the chief of the centre’s zoonotic infections and influenza section, Alexander Ryzhikov.