Russian Vaccine Sputnik V approved for emergency use in India as the third vaccine licensed in the country after Serum Institute of India’s Covishield – developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca – and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
Reddy’s Laboratories, based in Hyderabad, is involved in the construction of Sputnik V in India and claims to be able to produce 850 million doses per month.
The vaccine, first approved in Russia on August 11 last year, was on Monday recommended for emergency use in India by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the country’s drug authority Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Health officials had earlier said a decision on whether to approve the vaccine would be made within ten days.
In addition, there are reports that five more vaccines will be approved in the country by October as the Center was informed that there was a shortage of vaccine in several states.
India has surpassed Brazil to become the second highest in number of Covid positive cases daily with 1,68, 912 patients on Monday.
The Sputnik vaccine is expected to be available in the country by June. Officials said the government is making every effort to make the vaccines available faster without changing the research, production and clinical trial.
