India’s Shilpa Medicare joins efforts to ramp up manufacturing of Sputnik V COVID vaccine

In order to speed up India’s COVID-19 vaccination efforts, another Indian company, Shilpa Medicare has also joined the efforts to increase the manufacturing capacity of the Sputnik V Vaccine.

In September 2020, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, based in Hyderabad, had partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to conduct the clinical trials of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine as well as for its distribution rights in India.

Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in India on April 12, 2021, and the vaccine was granted emergency use authorization.

Shilpa Medicare to produce 50 million doses:

Sputnik V, while sharing the news on Twitter, announced that the Indian Company Shilpa Medicare has joined the efforts to increase Sputnik V manufacturing capacity.

Another Indian company joins the effort to ramp #SputnikV manufacturing capacity. India's Shilpa Medicare will produce 50 mln doses of #SputnikV in the next 12 months. It will also explore the possibility to produce single-shot Sputnik Light.👇 https://t.co/M5lurxp1qB

— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) May 17, 2021

India’s Shilpa Medicare will be producing 50 million doses of Sputnik V Vaccine in the next 12 months. The firm will also be exploring the possibility of a single-shot vaccine, named Sputnik Light.

India receives consignments of Sputnik V Vaccine:

India received the second consignment of Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine on May 16, 2021. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratory in Hyderabad has informed that the second consignment is of 60,000 doses of Sputnik V.

The first consignment of the imported doses of the Sputnik V vaccine had landed in India on May 1, 2021. It had received regulatory clearance on May 13 from the Central Drugs Laboratory in Himachal Pradesh.

Inoculations with Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine started in Hyderabad after the arrival of the first batch of Russia’s Vaccine in India on May 1, 2021.

Sputnik V: First foreign-made vaccine used in India

Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine has also become the first-foreign made vaccine to be used in India contributing to the largest COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the world.

Till now, two Make in India Vaccines- Covishield and COVAXIN, are being used to vaccinate the Indians. COVAXIN is developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR while Covishield is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Pune.

Nikolay Kudashev, Russian Ambassador to India, on May 16 termed the Russian-Indian fight against the pandemic, as an example of the special and privileged strategic partnership. He also called it an effective international anti-pandemic cooperation.