Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine gets approval for emergency use in India

The vaccine got the approval from Subject Expert Committee for Emergency Use Authorization, making it the third Covid-19 Vaccine to get clearance in India.

The decision to approve the vaccine for emergency use comes after the Drugs Controller General Of India (DCGI) met with the Subject Expert Committee today to discuss the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application of Sputnik V in India.

Dr Reddy Laborataries sought the approval of the government last week for the vaccines to be used in India. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) partnered with Dr Reddy in September 2020 to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V in India. DCGI had then asked for additional data from the drugmaker on its Sputnik V vaccine Covid-19 vaccine trials.

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The Serum Institute of India’s vaccine ‘Covishield’ and Bharat Biotech’s indigenously manufactured ‘Covaxin, are the two main Covid-19 vaccines currently being manufactured in India. “India will be receiving vaccines from five additional manufacturers by the end of the third quarter. These are Sputnik V, Johnson & Johnson Vaccine, Novavax Vaccine, Zydus Cadila Vaccine and Bharat Biotech’s Intranasal vaccine. Safety and efficacy are the union government’s primary concern while granting emergency use authorization to any covid-19 vaccine in the country,” sources told ANI.

Sputnik V vaccine, named after the first Soviet Space satellite, works on the principle of a weakened Covid virus delivering parts of a pathogen that triggers an immune response in the body. The Russian vaccines have effectiveness of 91.6 per cent.

Russia allowed Sputnik V for public use in August last year, though the approval came before the start of the large-scale trial in September. The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) comes at a time when India is facing the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with a large number of new cases being reported each day.