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Dr Reddy's Laboratories to begin importing Sputnik V vaccine in April-June

DRL says the company is expected to receive around 250 million doses

sputnik-v-vaccine-twitter Sputnik-V Vaccine | Russian Health Ministry

Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories will begin importing Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine from April-June, reports said on Wednesday. The DRL has received approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for restricted emergency use of the Russian vaccine in the country.

Deepak Sapra, DRL CEO (API and Services) said the company is expected to receive around 250 million doses of Spuntik V. He added that a clarity on the number of doses and the prices will be emerged in the next few days.

Earlier in the day, Sapra claimed that the DRL is in the process of generating additional stability data for Russia's COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, which has a storage condition of -18C, on 2 to 8 C. He said the vaccine will be imported in a frozen condition from Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) with which it has an agreement to distribute 125 million human doses.

In September 2020, Dr. Reddys and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials of the Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the rights for distribution of the first 100 million doses in India. Later it was enhanced to 125 million.

Sputnik V is the latest vaccine approved for emergency use in India after Covishield and Covaxin. 

Sputnik V uses a cold-type virus vector. It is engineered to be harmless, as a carrier to deliver a small fragment of the coronavirus to the body. Safely exposing the body to a part of the virus's genetic code in this way allows it to recognize the threat and learn to fight it off, without the risk of becoming ill.

Sputnik V, which has been shown to have 92 per cent efficacy, is given in two doses, three weeks apart.

The Russian vaccine is now approved for use in 60 countries around the world. It ranks second among coronavirus vaccines globally in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators. 

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