Russia eyes partnership with India for producing COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V

Russia is looking for a partnership with India for producing COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, a senior Russian official said on Thursday amid international concerns over its efficacy.

Russian Health Ministry, on August 15, confirmed that country has alrey initiated production of its COVID-19 vaccine, a development that comes days after Moscow anunced ‘world’s first COVID-19 vaccine’. Named Sputnik V, clinically approved vaccine against vel coronavirus has been manufactured by Gamaleya Research Institute in collaboration with Russian Health Ministry.

dressing an online press briefing, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said several nations are interested in production of vaccine from countries in Latin America, Asia, and Middle East.

" production of vaccine is a very important issue. Currently, we are looking for a partnership with India. We believe that y are capable of producing Gamaleya vaccine and it is very important to say that those partnerships to produce vaccine will enable us to cover demand that we have," he said.

Dmitriev said Russia is looking forward to international cooperation. "We are going to do clinical trials t just in Russia but also in UAE, Saudi Arabia, probably in Brazil and India. We are planning to produce vaccine in more than five countries and re is a very high demand from Asia, Latin America, Italy, and or parts of world regarding delivery of vaccine," he said.

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Alexander Gintsburg, director of Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology and an acemician at Russian Acemy of Sciences, said more than 20,000 people have taken part in clinical trials of vaccines and drugs, based on human eviruses or human eviral vectors.

"Vaccines do t contain live human eviruses, but human evirus vectors, that is, human viruses that cant multiply in body and are completely safe," he said.

Sputnik V vaccine consists of two shots that use different versions of eviruses -- virus s, some of which cause common cold -- that manufacturers have engineered to carry gene for surface protein of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.

According to reports, vaccine, which is first to go for production, will be rolled out by end of this month. Despite its fast-paced production, drug continues to draw skepticism from around world with many asserting that Russians may have put prestige before safety.  However, dismissing ir claim, Putin h asserted that one of his daughters h been given vaccine developed by country. 

(With PTI inputs)

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