Sputnik V Vaccine In India Soon, Govt Approves Financial Aid For SII & Biotech: What We Know

The first batch of Sputnik V, Russia's COVID vaccine is set to arrive soon in India, according to the Indian Ambassador to Russia, Bala Venkatesh Varma, as per a News18 report.

The production will start in May and it is expected to be as many as 50 million doses per month.

In the previous week, the DGCI had registered the vaccine under the emergency use authorization procedure. It will be the third vaccine to be used in India against COVID.

Reuters

"We almost think Sputnik V is an Indian-Russian vaccine because lots of production of Sputnik V will be done in India. We publicly announced five production partnerships in India with some of the largest Indian pharmaceutical companies,¡± said RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry gave in-principle approval to sanction supply credit to Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India to ramp up COVID vaccine production, as per a CNBC report.

It will be sanctioned to the nodal ministers in charge who then shall pass it on to the companies to ramp up vaccine production, as per reports.

PTI

Rs 3000 crore credit for Serum Institute and Rs 1500 crore to Bharat Biotech is the division.

From May 1 everyone above 18 shall be eligible to be vaccinated as India battles the surge of cases.

USA has informed our government that it understands India's pharmaceutical requirements and promised to give the matter due consideration, as per PTI.

President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump had invoked the war-time Defence Production Act (DPA) that leaves US companies with no option but to give priority to the production of COVID-19 vaccines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for domestic production to combat the deadly pandemic in America, the worst-hit nation.