Russia’s Sputnik: India has nearly five vaccines for coronavirus under its belt and with the announcement of production of 100 million vaccine doses of Russia’s covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V, India looks at extending its list even more. 

It is combine effort of three institution which include the Russian Direct Investmnet Fund, Russia’s sovereign wealth funf and the Hetero, which is one of India’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Together they will be producing 100 million doses of the vaccines to fight coronavirus. 

As per a statement released by the vaccine developers, Hetero and RDIF have been supporting the vaccine making process and already started marketingit. They plan to commence the production in the beginning of 2021. 

“We are delighted to announce the agreement between RDIF and Hetero that will pave the way to 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,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF in a statement. 

He added, “I am confident that Sputnik V should become an integral part of the national vaccine portfolio of every country willing to protect its population from the coronavirus. 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.”

According to the details released by Russian news websites, Sputnik V has till now demonstrated a 91.4% efficacy rate while scientists are still working on some changes. It is based on a human adenoviral vector and also became the first vaccine to explore this area, The trials have reached phase three and data revealed that 40,000 volunteers have participated in the process. 

TheRussian vaccine for treatment of covid-19 is in different stages in different countries of the world is in Belarus, the United Arab EMirates, Venezuela, it is a stage of trials while phase  ⅔  have been approved in India. India is among the list of countries who will be delivering vaccines to nearly 50 countries who have demanded over 1.2 billion doses.

Alexander Gintsberg who is director general of the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow has asserted that the World Health Organisation has already received an application by RODIF to accelerate the process of vaccine registration. 

The clarification has only come after experts were concerned about the methodology of the vaccine and doubted the efficiency of it after the fast paced making process by the russian authorities.