India to receive 100M coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia.
By IAR Desk
India will receive 100M coronavirus vaccine doses from Russia.India is reportedly one of the 32 countries that has expressed its interest in testing and obtaining Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Russia will be selling 100 million doses of its highly touted coronavirus vaccine to India, the Russian media reported today, September 16, 2020. This can happen only after the final testings and regulatory proceedings are concluded.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that is bankrolling the project announced this on Wednesday, September 16, the Moscow Times reported.
Apart from India, Brazil, Mexico and Kazakhstan have also signed up to receive supplies from Russia.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said that it has partnered with the Hyderabad-based global pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s on clinical trials and distribution of the vaccine – Sputnik V – in India.
“Upon regulatory approval in India, RDIF shall supply to Dr. Reddy’s 100 million doses of the vaccine,” it said in a statement on their website. RDIF also added, “Deliveries could potentially begin in late 2020 subject to completion of successful trials and registration of the vaccine by regulatory authorities in India.”
The reports also stated that RDIF has a manufacturing partnership agreement to process 300 million doses of the Russian adenovirus-based vector vaccine, that is administered in two shots, in India.
Russia began post-registration Phase 3 trials of Sputnik V among 40,000 volunteers in Moscow earlier this month amid questions surrounding its long-term safety. The very first results are expected either next month or in November, RDIF said.
India’s confirmed Covid-19 cases exceeded 5 million on Wednesday. The last million infections were reported in the country of 1.3 billion over the past 11 days, with global health officials warning that India is “not even in the middle” of its outbreak. Considering all this, India’s interest in the vaccine is obvious.
