Russia is already testing the first Sputnik V samples that were produced in India, its embassy in New Delhi said on Twitter on Friday, sharing a News in which his vaccine czar, Kirill Dmitriev, was quoted.
“In India, we have agreements with four big manufacturers,” Dmitriev, director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), told Rossiya 24 TV, according to the TASS news agency.
“India will produce around 300 million doses or more of the vaccine for us next year.”
India is the world’s largest vaccine maker and its pharmaceutical industry is freeing up capacity and accelerating investments ahead of the global fever for Covid-19 injections.
The straight from India Biopharma has already announced an agreement with the RDIF to produce more than 100 million doses of Sputnik V, the efficacy of which has been shown to exceed 91% in trials conducted outside of India.
It was not immediately clear which other Indian companies would make the vaccine, although Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd is conducting clinical trials in India and will also distribute the finished vaccine.
Indian officials have said they may approve some vaccines for emergency use authorization in the coming weeks. So far, only three vaccines of Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer / BioNTech and Indian company Bharat Biotech have requested urgent approval.
India’s Health Ministry reported 22,890 new coronavirus infections on Friday, bringing its total to just 10 million. It is the second most affected country in the world after the United States, which has registered 16.9 million cases.
India’s deaths increased by 338, bringing the total to 144,789.
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