Amid the race to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, Health Ministry today said that India is in conversation with Russia on lines of Sputnik-V covid-19 vaccine, which was earlier launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“As far as Sputnik-5 vaccine is concerned, India and Russia are in communication. Some initial information has been shared,”

Said Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Union Health Ministry.

Russia had recently registered “world’s first Covid-19 vaccine” and is now in the phase III trial of the vaccine, which involved more than 40,000 people at more than 45 medical centres around Russia. According to an earlier report, Russia is looking for a partnership with India for producing Covid-19 vaccine, Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said. Dmitriev added that several nations are interested in the production of the vaccine from countries in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

“The production of the vaccine is a very important issue. Currently, we are looking for a partnership with India. We believe that they are capable of producing the Gamaleya vaccine and it is very important to say that those partnerships to produce the vaccine will enable us to cover the demand that we have,” he said.

He also said Russia is looking forward to international cooperation. “We are going to do clinical trials not just in Russia but also in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, probably in Brazil and India. We are planning to produce the vaccine in more than five countries and there is a very high demand from Asia, Latin America, Italy and other parts of the world regarding the delivery of the vaccine,” he added.

Dubbed as Sputnik V, the vaccine is developed by Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian defence ministry. Russia registered the vaccine after less than two months of human testing. The results of initial trials have not been made public yet.

Earlier, the Indian Medical Research Institute (ICMR)’s director general Balram Bhargava had said, “Russia has fast tracked a vaccine which has been successful in its early phases. They have fast tracked its development.”

Apart from that, the ministry also mentioned that India has also ramped up the development of its Covid-19 vaccine. At present three COVID-19 vaccines are “ahead in the race in India,” said Dr Bhargava.

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The Serum Institute’s vaccine is in phase 2(B) and phase 3 trials and Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila’s vaccines have completed phase 1 trial, informed Dr Bhargava. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca could be put before regulators this year if scientists are able to gather enough data, said the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group.

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Under an agreement between Mexican and Argentine governments and drugmaker, AstraZeneca may start production of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in the first quarter of 2021. Phase III trials of the vaccine are expected to conclude by November or December.

India’s apex drug regulatory body has also granted approval to Serum Institute of India (SII) to conduct phase II and III human trial for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine in India. As per the study design, each subject will be administered two doses four weeks apart (first dose on day one and second dose on day 29) following which the safety and immunogenicity will be assessed at predefined intervals.

SII said the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide at-risk funding of $150 million to manufacture 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines for India and low-and-middle income countries. Under this agreement, Pune-based firm can charge a maximum of 3 dollar per dose for the two COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccine maker will get the funding from the Gates Foundation through international vaccine alliance GAVI.

“Keeping in mind the pandemic situation, we have two dedicated facilities to produce millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, while withholding vast production of other products,” Adar Poonawalla, chief executive officer of SII said.

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Meanwhile Russia maintains that its vaccine Sputnik V has undergone all necessary tests. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that one of his daughters had been inoculated with the vaccine. “I know it has proven efficient and forms a stable immunity, and I would like to repeat that it has passed all the necessary tests,” Putin said.

The WHO, on the other hand is skeptical about the Russian vaccine.

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