India will receive the first batch of the imported Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine on May 1st, providing a significant boost to the country’s ongoing nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, announced the news (RDIF). He did not, however, reveal the number of vaccines that would be delivered to India in the first batch.
It should be noted that, while the initial supplies are being imported, Sputnik V will soon be mass-produced in India. In this regard, RDIF, which is marketing the vaccine worldwide, has signed agreements with several leading Indian manufacturers to produce up to 850 million doses per year.
The RDIF anticipates that Indian production of Sputnik V will reach 50 million doses per month by the summer, and that this figure will rise further.
Meanwhile, on Monday (April 26), Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez announced that it was ready to ship up to 1 million packs of the remdesivir antiviral drug to India by the end of May, pending approval from the Russian government.
