India is working on both manufacturing and trial of Sputnik V vaccine with the government in touch with several companies for potential manufacturing of the Russian candidate.
Chairman of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Administration Taskforce VK Paul on Tuesday said India attached great importance to the Russian offer of manufacturing of the vaccine by Indian firms as well as phase 3 trials or bridging studies, as might be required to establish the efficacy of the vaccine.
“Russia approached India through appropriate channels on two counts – one is the manufacturing of Sputnik V through the network of Indian companies to achieve a scale of production that is the best in the world; the second is the possibility of conducting phase 3 human clinical trials in India as phase 1 and phase 2 trials on the vaccine have already concluded and the results have been published in The Lancet recently.
“The Government of India attaches great importance to these offers from a special friend that Russia is and there have been significant movements on both these fronts,” Paul said.
India’s overall COVID-19 case load surged to 42,04,613 with 33,23,950 recoveries, 8,83,697 active cases and 72,775 deaths.
India’s case fatality rate has reduced to 1.70 per cent with 28 states and UTs posting death rates lower than the national average and 14 states and UTs posting active case load of less than 5,000.
Paul, however, minced no words to point to people’s laxity and said the spurt in cases was not only due to increased testing but also due to lack of discipline among the people.
“State after state has complained of growing people’s laxity towards the virus. Any further laxity will prove disastrous,” he said.
“Also care seeking has to be instant and not delayed. We are hearing of people’s resistance to getting tested. That can be very damaging as the virus travels from cities to villages,” said Paul.
He said around four Indian companies had come forward to manufacture Sputnik V and some others were also in talks with their Russian counterparts.
“The GOI is facilitating the process. It is a win-win situation for India and the world given large production capacities our companies have. Serum Institute alone has the capacity to make 100 million vaccine doses in a month,” he said.
On the regulatory front and phase 3 trial of the Russian vaccine, Paul said India was looking at the similar model as in case of the Oxford vaccine which Serum Institute was now making and testing in India.
“We can consider the same model for the Russian candidate which will then undergo Phase 3 trials on Indian volunteers. We are paving the way for phase 3 trials of Sputnik V as and when required. So, yes we are working with the Russian vaccine candidate on manufacturing, trial and regulatory facilitation fronts,” said Paul.
