The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) and New Delhi-based Panacea Biotec have announced the supply of the first shipment out of 1 million doses of the second component (human adenovirus serotype 5) of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Panacea Biotec for sale in India.

This is the first batch of the second component produced and supplied by the Panacea Biotec in India. Doses of the second component of Sputnik V have been manufactured at Panacea Biotec’s manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh. The company received the necessary clearance from Central Drug Laboratories (CDL), Kasauli recently.

Full-scale production of Sputnik V started at Panacea Biotec’s facilities this summer. Facilities comply with GMP standards and are prequalified by WHO. The batch will be distributed in India through a partner of RDIF and Panacea Biotec – Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. To date, Sputnik V has been authorized in 70 countries with a total population of over 4 billion people.

Dr Rajesh Jain, MD, Panacea Biotec, said, “Panacea Biotec is pleased to have successfully produced and dispatched the first batch of Component II (Ad5) of Sputnik V vaccine. More batches are currently under production at our manufacturing facility in Himachal Pradesh.”