Dr Reddy s hopes to finish Phase 3 trials of COVID-19 vaccine by March-May

Hyderabad, Oct 28 (PTI) Dr Reddys Laboratories on
Wednesday said the Phase 3 trials of Russia's Sputnik V
vaccine for COVID-19 in India to be conducted by it are
expected to be completed by the end of March depending on
approvals and data validation.
The city-headquartered drug maker, which has received
approval from the Drug Control General of India (DCGI) for
conducting human clinical trials of Sputnik V, was expected to
complete the Phase 2 trials by December, Dr Reddys Chief
Executive Officer Erez Israeli said.
"Phase-3, we should finish somewhere by March and then of
course it depends on the ability to compile the data, obtain
the approvals etc. It can be as early as end of March or April
/May and beyond. It depends on the results. Its a combination
of phase-2, global phase-3 and phase-3 in India," he told
reporters here after announcing the company's Q2 results.
He said the company needed to engage 100 and 1,400
volunteers for Phase 2 and 3 trials respectively.
Dr. Reddys and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF),
Russias sovereign wealth fund, entered into a partnership
last month to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V and its
distribution in India.
As part of the partnership, RDIF shall supply 100
million doses of the vaccine to Dr. Reddys upon regulatory
approval in India.
On August 11, the Sputnik V vaccine developed by the
Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and
Microbiology was registered by the Ministry of Health of
Russia and became the worlds first registered vaccine against
COVID-19 based on the human adenoviral vectors platform.
Sputnik V is currently undergoing phase 3 clinical trials
in Russia and the proposed number of subjects is 40,000. PTI
GDK
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)