Representational image of Morepen Labs
Moscow: Russia's sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Morepen Laboratories on Tuesday announced production of the test batch of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at the drugmaker's facility in Himachal Pradesh.
As per an IANS report, the first batch of the vaccine will be shipped to Russia's Gamaleya Center for quality control. Sputnik V, which was granted emergency use authorisation in India in April, was the third to be launched in the country for its nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme, after the Covaxin and Covishield.
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Morepen had signed a cooperation agreement in June 2021 for transferring the technology. RDIF had also reached agreements earlier with other pharmaceutical companies in India -- Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech.
Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, in a statement on Tuesday, said that the agreement with Morepen Laboratories provides for a larger amount of Sputnik V to be available both for India and our partners globally to speed up the vaccination with one of the best vaccines in the world.
The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years. The vaccine is two-shot and studies have shown it to be 97.6 per cent effective against Covid-19. It is priced at less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world.
RDIF has agreed with partners in India to provide for the production of more than 850 million doses of Sputnik V per year. So far, Sputnik V has been registered in 67 countries globally with a total population of over 3.5 billion people.
"We are delighted to partner with RDIF for the prestigious project of Sputnik V production in India. This would be our privilege to work jointly on expanding the production base in India," added Sushil Suri, Chairman and Managing Director of Morepen Laboratories.
Suri said the company looks for a "long term relationship with RDIF".