Mankind strikes deal with RDIF for sale of Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V in India

Mankind will only be selling the vaccine and not conduct clinical trials

Delhi-based pharmaceutical company Mankind Pharma has signed a deal with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for the sale of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, a Mint article said.

The deal is supposed to support the previous pact with Dr Reddy Laboratories which will conduct trials as well as distribute the Russian vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology and RDIF.

Mankind Pharma, however, will concentrate only on the marketing and distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine.

Also Read: Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech to begin trial of intranasal Covid-19 vaccine soon

“It depends on how many doses they will give Mankind. The RDIF has pacts with Russian and Korean manufacturers for around 50 million doses so far. Talks with Indian manufacturers are also ongoing. Mankind will get the doses once the approvals are in place and the doses are supplied,” sources told the publication.

On October 16, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) granted Dr Reddy’s Laboratories the permission to conduct a joint phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials as phase 2 trial in Russia was conducted on a very small sample size of 76 people which did not include any Indian subjects.

The firm added that the phase 2 trial will include 100 subjects while phase will have at least 1,400 candidates.

RDIF shall supply 100 million doses of Sputnik V to Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, the firm said. The laboratory is expected to conduct observer-blind, multi-centre, randomised controlled trials.

In the meantime, Russia is conducting its own phase 3 trial with around 40,000 candidates.

Sputnik V was the first registered Covid-19 vaccine released to the world based on the human adenoviral vector platform.

With agency inputs