Panacea Biotec zooms 20% as company to make 100 mn Sputnik V doses yearly

The Russian Direct Investment Fund and Panacea Biotec announced cooperation to produce 100 million doses per year of Sputnik V

Shares of Panacea Biotec were locked in the upper circuit of 20 per cent at Rs 220.85 on the BSE in Tuesday's session after the company and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) agreed to produce 100 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine in India per year.

Till 09:19 am, a combined 384,000 equity shares had changed hands on the counter and there were pending buy orders for around 180,000 shares on the NSE and BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.29 per cent at 49,017.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund), and Panacea Biotec announced cooperation to produce 100 million doses per year of Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus, the company said in a press release.

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

To date, Sputnik V has been registered in 59 countries globally with a total population of over 1.5 billion people. The efficacy of Sputnik V is at 91.6 per cent 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, it said.

The management said Panacea Biotec brings decades of vaccine manufacturing and distribution know-how to scale up Sputnik V supplies. The company will produce Sputnik V in its internationally accredited facilities, complying with strict GMP standards and prequalified by WHO.