Sputnik V vaccine is the first registered vaccine of the world against COVID-19 based on the human adenoviral vector-based platform. The post-registration clinical trial of the vaccine is being held in Russia, with 40,000 volunteers. At present, it is in the list of top-10 COVID-19 vaccines nearing the end of clinical trials.
Key Points
- The vaccine is named after the first Soviet space satellite ‘Sputnik-1’ launched in 1957.
- Clinical trials of Sputnik V have been approved and being conducted in the UAE, India, Venezuela and Belarus.
- In October 2020, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories got DCGI’s (Drugs Controller General of India) approval for conducting an adaptive phase II-III human clinical trials for Sputnik V vaccine in India.
- Reddy’s Laboratories has also entered into an agreement with the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) for the receiving advisory support on Sputnik V vaccine clinical trials in India.
- The price of one dose of Sputnik V for international markets will be around Rs 740 (less than USD 10).
Sputnik V vaccine 95% effective against COVID-19
- Recently, Russia announced that the efficacy of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine is over 95 per cent.
- RDIF has joined hands with top foreign pharmaceutical companies through MoUs, allowing the Sputnik V vaccine to be produced abroad for 500 million people per year, starting from 2021. The efficacy of the vaccine is over 91%, based on the second interim analysis of data.
- As of November 24, 2020, 22,000 volunteers had been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine and over 19,000 volunteers have vaccinated with both doses.
Requests for over 1.2 billion doses of Sputnik V vaccine have been received from more than 50 countries. The Sputnik V supplies for the international market will be produced by international partners of RDIF in Brazil, India, China, South Korea and other countries.
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF)
It is a sovereign wealth fund of Russia established in the year 2011 for making investments in leading companies of the Russian economy. It acts as an aggregator of direct investment in Russia.