Updated: September 16, 2020 7:14:21 am
In this brochure photo taken on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020 and provided by the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a new vaccine is on display at the Nikolai Gamaleya National Epidemiology and Microbiology Center in Moscow, Russia.
Russian Covid-19 Sputnik V vaccine has piqued the interest of human and veterinary vaccine manufacturer Indian Immunologicals Ltd, which is currently in talks to potentially collaborate on its mass manufacturing here. The conversations, Not yet finalized, it involves an exchange of information on both sides to determine whether the Hyderabad-based company can successfully incorporate Russian technology and increase production here, The Indian Express has learned.
“We are in talks. We are exploring the option of making Sputnik V vaccine here after it gets the necessary approvals, ”confirmed Dr. K Anand Kumar, Managing Director of Indian Immunologicals when contacted. “At this moment, we have exchanged information that we are going through and we have not decided yet,” he said.
According to Kumar, there are “many” parameters that will need to be considered before finalizing anything.
“We have to see if the technology can be successfully transferred to our platform and how much we can produce. We are analyzing the compatibility of what they have done, if it fits with the equipment we have and at what scale we can produce this vaccine, “he said.
Sputnik V is a human adenoviral vector vaccine, which basically uses a genetically modified virus to carry the code of the cells of the human body to produce the pointed outer layer (spike protein) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is expected to help the body recognize this spike protein as a foreign substance and develop an immune response against it so that it can fight the actual virus when it tries to infect.
The vaccine was developed by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and is the first Covid-19 vaccine to be registered, although phase 3 trials of the candidate had not been conducted when Russia approved the vaccine. Post-registration trials involving 40,000 volunteers are underway there, while Brazil’s regulatory authorities are also expected to grant approvals after phase 3 trials.
“We are still looking at the information that they have provided us … it could take some time before something is finalized as the information exchange is still ongoing,” Kumar said.
Queries to Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been closely involved in discussions with various countries for the supply of Sputnik V, including India, received no response as of press time Tuesday. . Indian Immunologicals has so far allocated a capacity to produce about 20 million single-dose vaccines for Covid-19, which could reach 200 million if the vaccine is multi-dose, Kumar said.
The Hyderabad firm also has an agreement with Griffith University in Australia to develop a live attenuated vaccine. Kumar said last month in a panel discussion with Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao that human trials for that candidate vaccine are likely to begin in the first months of 2021.
At a press conference on September 8, Niti Aayog (Health) member Dr. VK Paul had said that the central government had been exploring the possibility of making Sputnik V here when an expansion was required. It had also been studying the possibility of conducting large-scale phase 3 human trials of the vaccine in India.
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