Pharmaceutical Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, a multinational vaccine company based in Hyderabad, announced in a statement that it has entered into an agreement with the RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign fund of the Russian government) to lead the final phase in India human tests of Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine against the coronavirus that has been tested since the end of August.
“Phases 1 and 2 have shown good possibilities: We will conduct phase 3 tests in India to verify that the vaccine meets the criteria of our drug regulator,” said DRL President and Executive Director GV Prasad. Who added: “Sputnik V can be an excellent weapon in our country’s fight against Covid-19”.
An RDIF spokesperson said the Russian fund is committed to distributing 100 million doses “for mass vaccination” in India as soon as the drug is authorized.
Indian Immunological LDT, another pharmaceutical company based in Hyderabad, known globally for veterinary products, also announces through its executive director, K Anand Kumar, contacts with the RDFI for the mass production of Sputnik V.
“We are checking whether their technology can be successfully ported to our production platform, and how many doses we could produce, “he told The Indian Express newspaper.
On August 11, Russia registered its own anti-COVID vaccine stressing that it is the first country in the world to do so, but the registration of the Sputnik V vaccine actually took place after less than two months of experimentation on humans and without it being completed the third and final phase of clinical trials, which normally lasts months or years and involves thousands of people. Phase 3 of the clinical trial, which is expected to involve 40,000 volunteers, only began at the beginning of this month and – according to the Moscow Times – the first results are expected in October or November. According to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (Rdif), vaccine doses to India could begin to be provided at the end of 2020 “