New Delhi: Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V has arrived in India and is likely to be available in the Indian market by next week, as per Dr VK Paul, Member-Health of Niti Aayog.
The senior government official said, ” I’m happy to say that we’re hopeful that it’ll be available in the market next week. We’re hopeful that the sale of the limited supply that has come from there (Russia), will begin next week.”
“Its production will begin in July and it is estimated that 15.6 crore doses will be manufactured in that period,” Dr VK Paul added.
Only three vaccines have been approved to be sold in the country — Covaxin, Coveshield, and Sputnik V. Sputnik V has been approved to be imported from Russia by Dr Reddy’s.
More than 60 countries had registered Sputnik V for emergency use and most of these countries had already received the first batch of the vaccine.
The first batch of 150,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived on May 1, the day when India opened its third phase of vaccination to people between the age group of 18 to 44 years.
Sputnik V is based on human adenoviral vectors, is one of three vaccines (the other two are Pfizer and Moderna) that have an efficacy of over 90 per cent against the coronavirus disease, which is caused by SARS-CoV-2. It was given regulatory approval or restricted use authorisation in India on April 12.
