Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine — Sputnik V — has been recommended for emergency use authorisation in India following a meeting of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on April 12, 2021.
- The Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be made available in India after the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
- Dr Reddy’s has the rights for distribution of the first 100 million doses in India, which will be a combination of Indian and Russian made vaccines.
- The recommendation comes amid the recent record surge of fresh COVID cases. On Monday, India reported 948 cases with the U.K., South Africa and Brazil variants of the virus, according to the Health Ministry.
- The Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, uses two different viruses that cause the common cold (adenovirus) in humans.
- Sputnik V is to be stored at -18°C in its liquid form. However, in its freeze-dried form, it can be stored at 2-8°C, in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.
