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 vaccine against COVID-19 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.
Hetero Labs Limited, Director of International Marketing, B Murali Krishna Reddy, said, "While we look forward to the clinical trial results in India (of Sputnik-V), we believe that manufacturing the product locally is crucial to enable swift access to patients."
It may be mentioned here that another Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company, Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, has received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India to conduct the Phase 2/3 clinical trials of the Sputnik-V vaccine in India that are expected to start soon.
Earlier in September 2020, Dr Reddy’s and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials and distribution of Sputnik V vaccine in India as part of which RDIF shall supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to Dr Reddy’s upon regulatory approval. Sputnik-V is also undergoing Phase III clinical trials in Belarus, UAE, Venezuela and some other countries.
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 safe and 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 and provide people of India with an efficient solution in this challenging period of the pandemic.”