India's Panacea Biotec to produce 100 mn Sputnik V doses annually: RDIF

Indian biotech firm Panacea Biotec Ltd has agreed to produce 100 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine annually, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which markets the shot internationally, said on Monday.

RDIF did not say when production would begin.

Production of Sputnik V at Panacea Biotec sites will help facilitate global supply of Sputnik V to international partners of RDIF.

Till date, Sputnik V has been registered in 59 countries globally with total population of over 1.5 billion people. Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6% as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals.

The vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.