Sputnik V vaccine (File photo| AP)
HYDERABAD: Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company Hetero Drugs has reached an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce over 100 million doses per year of the RDIF’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in India. The agreement has been reached by Hetero Drugs through its biologics arm Hetero Biopharma. The two parties intend to start the production of Sputnik V at the start of 2021.
“We believe that manufacturing the product (Sputnik V) locally is crucial to enable swift access to patients,’ said Hetero Labs Limited, Director of International Marketing, B Murali Krishna Reddy. It may be mentioned here that Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has received the approval from Drugs Controller General of India to conduct the Phase 2/3 clinical trials of the vaccine in India.
ALSO READ: Clear picture on vaccine by early 2021, says Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
In September this year, Dr Reddy’s and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials and distribution of the vaccine in India, as part of which RDIF will supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to Dr Reddy’s upon regulatory approval.
RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said: “We are delighted to announce the agreement between RDIF and Hetero that will pave the way for production of the highly effective Sputnik V vaccine on Indian soil. The vaccine’s interim clinical trial results show 95% efficacy on the 42nd day after the first dose. Thanks to our cooperation with Hetero, we will be able to significantly increase production capacity.”
