Russia to introduce single-dose Sputnik vaccine shot in India

Russia is planning to introduce its single dose anti-Covid-19 vaccine in India soon, Nikolay Kudashev, Moscow’s envoy to New Delhi, said as the second consignment of 60,000 doses of the Sputnik V jabs developed by his country’s Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology arrived in Hyderabad on Sunday.

Kudashev also said that the production of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines in India was expected to be increased to 850 million doses per year.

Read | Second batch of Russian Covid-19 vaccine reaches Hyderabad

“Pleased to share that the consignment that arrived today in Hyderabad contains 60,000 doses of the second dose component of the #SputnikV vaccine. Samples from the consignment will be sent for release to the Central Drugs Laboratory,” Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited posted on Twitter, after the shipment arrived from Russia.

The pharmaceutical company had on May 1 received the first consignment of 1.5 lakh doses of Sputnik V and the Central Drugs Laboratory at Kasauli in Himachal Pradesh cleared it for use last Thursday. The company soft-launched the imported vaccine, which would cost Rs 995.4 including 5% GST per dose, in Hyderabad on Friday.

“Given the recent launch of the Russian vaccine in the Indian vaccination campaign, this second delivery (in Hyderabad on Sunday) has become very timely. The efficacy of the #SputnikV is well-known in the world,” tweeted Kudashev. “(The) Sputnik V is Russian-Indian vaccine. We expect that its production in India will be gradually increased up to 850 million doses per year.”

Read | Russia authorises single-dose Sputnik Light Covid vaccine for use

Moscow has plans to introduce the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine in India soon, said the Ambassador of Russia in New Delhi.

The Sputnik Light is the first component – recombinant human adenovirus serotype number 26 (rAd26) – of the Sputnik V vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) stated. It claimed that the Sputnik Light had demonstrated 79.4% efficacy according to the data taken from 28 days after the injection had been administered. The data had been obtained from the Russians, who had been vaccinated with a single injection, but not received the second one for any reason during the mass vaccination program between December 5 and April 15, the RDIF stated.

The Sputnik V was approved for use in India on April 12 last and granted an emergency use authorization, amid the raging second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.

The RDIF, which is promoting the Sputnik V vaccine around the world, had entered into a partnership with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited in September 2020 to conduct clinical trials of the jab and its distribution in India. The RDIF had committed to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited.

Russia is keen to turn India into a major production hub for the Sputnik V vaccines. The RDIF recently stated that it had reached agreements with the leading pharmaceutical companies in India – like Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech – with an objective to produce more than 850 million doses of the anti-Covid-19 jabs in the country per year.

“In Russia, (the) #SputnikV (is) being successfully used to vaccinate citizens starting since 2nd half of 2020. #Russia'n specialists declared it’s also effective against new #COVID19 strains,” tweeted Kudashev.