Virchow to make Sputnik V vaccine in India

Moscow: The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia's sovereign wealth fund, and Virchow Biotech Private Ltd, a part of the Virchow Group and one of the leading vaccine and pharmaceutical producers in India, have entered into an agreement to produce 200 million doses per year of Sputnik V in India. Sputnik V is the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus.

The technology transfer is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2021 followed by full-scale commercial production of Sputnik V.

Virchow Biotech capacities will help facilitate global supply of Sputnik V to international partners of RDIF. Sputnik V has been registered in 54 countries globally with total population of over 1.4 billion people.

Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6 per cent as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals.

The vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.