‘Sputnik V’ Production Begins in India, Delhi Firm Panacea Biotec Set to Produce 100 Mn Doses a Year
Byline By – Balkrishna
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) or Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has tied up with Indian pharmaceutical firms such as Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech to manufacture more than 850 million doses a year. Sputnik V has been granted approval for emergency use by India’s drug controller.
“The first batch produced at Panacea Biotec’s facilities at Baddi will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center [in Russia] for quality control. Full-scale production of the vaccine is due to start this summer. Company’s facilities comply with GMP [good manufacturing practice] standards and are prequalified by WHO,” RDIF said in a statement.
Full-scale production of the vaccine is due to start this summer, it stated, adding that the company’s facilities “comply with GMP standards and are prequalified by the WHO (World Health Organisation)”.
Panacea Biotec’s Managing Director Dr Rajesh Jain said the launch of Sputnik V production is a significant step in India’s battle against the virus. “Together with RDIF, we hope to help bring a sense of normalcy back to people across the country and around the world,” he added.
“The vaccine will also be exported at a later stage to help prevent the spread of the virus in other countries around the world,” he added.
To date, Sputnik V has been registered in 66 countries globally with a total population of over 3.2 billion people. The efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6 percent based on the analysis of data on coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020, to March 31, 2021.
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”, the statement said.