A second consignment of the Russian-manufactured Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V today reached Hyderabad. This comes after an earlier one of 1.5 lakh doses reached the city on May 1.
Officials of pharma giant Dr Reddy's Laboratories stated that a total of 60,000 doses were brought to the Shamshabad airport by a special Russian aircraft.
Speaking on the occasion, Russian Ambassador Nicholai Kudashev said that bilateral ties between India and Russia were very strong and that Russia would continue to support India in its fight against the pandemic.
Elaborating on the efficacy of the vaccine, he added, "Sputnik V has been in use in our country since the second half of 2020. The vaccine has been found to be functioning effectively in the prevention of the spread of Covid-19. In fact, it is also effective in increasing immunity to certain new strains of the coronavirus. Keeping all this in mind, we are currently planning to increase the production of the vaccine to 850 million doses per annum in collaboration with our manufacturing partners in India for domestic use."
Kudashev also said that currently, work was being done to introduce a single dose variety of the vaccine.
Dr Reddy's Lab entered an agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund for the manufacturing and distribution of Sputnik V in India. The distribution of the vaccine was started by the company after it (Sputnik V) received regulatory clearance from the Himachal Pradesh-based Central Drugs Laboratory on May 13.
The custom pharma services head of the company Deepak Sapra took the
first dose of the vaccine in the country on May 14.