Amid an acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines worldwide, India’s vaccine makers are expected to start producing Russia’s Sputnik V and the US Novavax vaccines soon to augment supplies as the pandemic continues to surge.
India's Gland Pharma Ltd said on Tuesday it has inked an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce and supply up to 25.2 crore doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. It has become the third Indian company after Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd and Hetero that will be producing the shots.
Under the terms of the agreement, Gland Pharma will first undertake technology transfer of the drug substance to its manufacturing facilities. It will then start manufacturing of drug substance and drug product filling into vials under aseptic conditions. "Gland Pharma’s expertise in manufacturing of sterile injectable at significant scale will support in establishing a stable supply of Covid-19," the company said in a regulatory filing.
Indian drugmaker Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has already been working with RDIF to hold small domestic clinical studies of Sputnik V. The company sought emergency use approval last month, but was asked for further immunogenicity data by India's drug regulator.
India's Hetero has also entered into a deal to manufacture over 100 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.
Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia and over 3.5 million people in Russia have already received both doses of the vaccine. Leading medical journal The Lancet last month published results showing the jab to be safe and over 90 per cent effective.
SII to produce Novavax from April
Meanwhile, after having successfully manufactured the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said on Wednesday that the company expects to launch Covovax, the Covid vaccine developed by US pharma giant Novavax, by August.
The Pune-based company will begin stockpiling this vaccine next month, which it will test on the Indian population in a bridging study.
“The good news is that we’re going to start stockpiling the product starting in the month of April, so that…we have a huge stockpile which we can then distribute the minute we’re licenced,” he said during the Bloomberg Equity Summit.
He said it has become difficult for companies to reach their goal of supplying 2 billion doses by the end of the year to COVAX — the global Covid-19 vaccine facility under GAVI and WHO which aims to supply doses to the poor countries.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment for supporting vaccine equity and sharing Covid vaccines with over 70 countries across the world, hoping that other nations will follow his example.
