Hyderabad: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has received approval from DCGI for restricted emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V. The company said Tuesday it expects the first lot of Sputnik V from Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) by May end. In September 2020, Dr Reddy’s and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V. The COVID-19 vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. Dr Reddy’s was initially supposed to receive the first 100 million doses for use in India. Later, it was enhanced to 125 million.
“We are targeting to have the first batches imported by Q1, and are trying our best to have them by end-May,” a Dr Reddy’s spokesperson told this agency in an email reply.
Also read: India to produce 850 million Sputnik V doses annually: RDIF
RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev in a virtual press conference recently said that the RDIF has tied up with five drug companies for manufacturing the vaccine. It is also looking at a couple of more firms for the possible production pacts. Once available, Sputnik V will be the third vaccine to be used in India against coronavirus.
In January, DCGI had given the emergency use authorisation for two COVID-19 vaccines – Covaxin of Bharat Biotech and Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India in Pune.
“We expect domestic manufacturing of Sputnik V to ramp up from Q2. We are not able to confirm on the first lot size at this time,” the official further said.
Another senior official of Dr Reddy’s said the vaccine will be imported in a frozen condition from RDIF maintaining temperature between -18 to -22 degree celsius.
