Hetero Drugs Signs Deal To Produce 10 Crore Doses Of Russian Sputnik-V COVID-19 Vaccine In India

Indian drugmaker Hetero Drugs has signed an agreement with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce over a hundred million doses of the Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine through its subsidiary Hetero Biopharma, reports Economic Times.

The company is likely to begin the production in the beginning of 2021 as RDIF is looking to significantly ramp up the production capacity.

The development comes at a time when another Indian pharmaceutical giant Dr Reddy Laboratories is carrying out the said vaccine's Phase-II and Phase-III clinical trials in India. The Phase-III clinical trials of the vaccine have also been approved and are ongoing in Belarus, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It should be noted that as per the deal between RDIF and Dr Reddy, if and once the Indian trials succeed, the latter will be provided with 100 million doses to distribute in the nation upon regulatory approvals.

India holds the world's largest capacity to manufacture vaccines and is home to a host of companies which specialise in the production ability. These companies include Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII), Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech and Gujarat based Zydus Cadila. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi is set to visit all three facilities today to review the progress of vaccine development.