Sputnik V production starts in India at Panacea Biotec's Baddi unit

First batch to be shipped to Gamaleya for quality control; Panacea to produce 100 mn doses

The manufacture in India of Sputnik V vaccine has begun with Panacea Biotec announcing the launch of production on Monday.

The first batch produced at Panacea Biotec’s facilities at Baddi will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center for quality control, noted the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.

“Full-scale production of the vaccine is due to start this summer. The company’s facilities comply with GMP standards and are prequalified by WHO,” it added. Panacea will produce 100 million doses of Sputnik V.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said: “Launch of production in India in partnership with Panacea Biotec marks an important step in helping the country fight the pandemic. Production of Sputnik V supports efforts of India’s authorities to leave behind the acute phase of coronavirus as soon as possible while the vaccine will also be exported at a later stage to help prevent the spread of the virus in other countries around the world.”

In April, RDIF and Panacea had said that the latter would make 100 million doses of Sputnik V for the global markets. The production at Panacea’s plants can thus be expected to be for RDIF’s global commitments and not India.

Despite several attempts, Panacea Biotec could not reached and an email sent to RDIF remained unanswered.

RDIF and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL), its marketing and distribution partner in India, have said 250 mn doses of Sputnik V would be available for India annually. RDIF has partnered with several Indian players to have a production base in India – around 850 mn doses annually. Stelis Pharma (Strides arm), Hetero, Gland Pharma, Virchow Group are among those who are RDIF’s Indian manufacturing partners.

Sputnik V was registered in India under the emergency use authorization procedure on April 12, 2021 and vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine started on May 14.

To date Sputnik V has been registered in 66 countries globally with a total population of over 3.2 billion people. “Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6 percent based on the analysis of data on coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021,”RDIF said.

The vaccine is based on a platform of human adenoviral vectors and uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination.