India to make Russia vaccine

ONE of the developers of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine announced last Friday (27) that India-based drugmaker Hetero will produce over 100 million doses of the jab.

“Hetero, one of India’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies, have agreed to produce in India over 100 million doses per year of the world’s first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection – Sputnik V,” the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said, adding that production was expected to start in early 2021.

Last week, Russia said interim results from the Sputnik V clinical trails showed the vaccine was 95 per cent effective, similar to other international vaccine makers that have also published test results showing efficacy rates of 90 per cent and higher.

Russia also announced that the Sputnik V vaccine will be priced at $10 (£7.47) per dose on international markets, costing less than some other registered Covid-19 vaccines.

It was the first country to announce the registration of a coronavirus vaccine in August – dubbed Sputnik V after the Soviet-era satellite – but did so ahead of large scale clinical trials.

Currently the third and final phase of trials is underway, with some 40,000 volunteers involved in blind testing of the vaccine that uses two different human adenovirus vectors.

Third phase trials are also underway in the ex-Soviet republic of Belarus, the UAE and Venezuela among other countries.

Apart from India, Sputnik V will also be produced in Brazil, China and South Korea, the RFID said.