FILE PHOTO: A nurse shows a box with Russia’s “Sputnik-V” vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) prepared for inoculation in a post-registration trials stage at a clinic in Moscow, Russia September 17, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva
MOSCOW — Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero have agreed to produce over 100 million doses per year in India of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19, according to a statement on the Sputnik V Twitter account on Friday.
Hetero and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been backing the vaccine and marketing it globally, plan to start production of Sputnik V in India at the beginning of 2021, the statement said.
Phase II-III trials are ongoing in India, the statement said. Drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd has said it expects late-stage trials to be completed by as early as March 2021.