The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Virchow Biotech have signed an agreement to annually produce up to 200 million doses of Russia’s Covid-9 vaccine Sputnik V in India.
Based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two jabs in a course of inoculation.
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The transfer of technology is anticipated to conclude in the second quarter of this year followed by a full-scale commercial production of the vaccine.
The Virchow Biotech capabilities will help the global supply of Sputnik V to RDIF’s international partners.
Russian Direct Investment Fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev said: “Vaccine partnerships are the only way to overcome the pandemic.
“The agreement with Virchow Biotech is an important step to facilitate the full-scale local production of the vaccine in India and to supply our international partners globally.”
Sputnik V is currently registered in 54 countries globally.
Last month, Mexican health regulator COFEPRIS authorised Sputnik V for emergency use after the country entered a contract to secure millions of vaccine doses.
On another note, Dyadic International (DYAI) is set to expand its partnership with South Korea’s Medytox to co-develop C1 manufactured Covid-19 vaccines and/or boosters.
If proven successful, these vaccines will be used against two or more of the existing and future Covid-19 variants.
Medytox Research and Development (R&D) senior executive vice-president and head Dr Gi-Hyeok Yang said: “Based on our experience and comparing the C1 technology platform against several other expression platforms such as CHO and insect cells, we believe that the fungi-derived C1 expression system is the most realistic technology to develop and manufacture multi-valent (i.e., tri-valent, and tetra-valent) vaccines rapidly and affordably against Covid-19 mutant viruses without the need for a large-scale bioreactor facility.”
