First Batch Of Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine To Arrive In India On 1 May: Russian Direct Investment Fund

In a major fillip to the nation's ongoing nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, India is set to receive the first batch of the imported Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine on 1 May, reports Livemint.

The development was announced by Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). He, however, did not share the quantity of the vaccine which would arrive in India in the first batch.

It should be noted that even though the initial supplies are being imported, Sputnik V will soon also be manufactured in India in massive volumes. In this regard, RDIF, which is marketing the vaccine globally, has signed agreements with several leading Indian manufacturers for producing as many as 850 million doses per annum.

RDIF expects the Indian production of Sputnik V to reach as high as 50 million doses per month by the summer, and also expects the same to rise further.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that on Monay (26 April), Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez said that it was ready to ship up to 1 million packs of the remdesivir antiviral drug to India by the end-May, once it has received the approval of the Russian government.