Russia’s Sputnik V gets Emergency Use Authorisation nod in India

The decision comes after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)'s SEC met today to take up Sputnik V application for EUA in India.

New Delhi: Russia’s Sputnik V got approval from the Subject expert committee (SEC) for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA), making it the third Covid-19 vaccine to get clearance in India.

According to sources, the SEC approved Dr Reddy’s application for EUA to Sputnik V.

The decision comes after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)’s SEC met today to take up Sputnik V application for EUA in India.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, last week sought the government’s approval for the vaccine to be used in India. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) partnered with Dr Reddy’s in September 2020 to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V in India.

DCGI had then sought additional data from drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories on its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine trial.

India is currently manufacturing two Covid-19 vaccines, — Serum Institute of India’s locally-made Oxford Covid-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ and Bharat Biotech’s indigenously manufactured Covaxin.

On Sunday, government sources told ANI that by end of the third quarter of this year, India will be getting vaccines from five additional manufacturers.

“India currently has two Covid-19 vaccines being manufactured locally: Covishield and Covaxin, and we can expect five more vaccines by Q3 2021. These vaccines are Sputnik V vaccine (in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s), Johnson & Johnson vaccine (in collaboration with Biological E), Novavax vaccine (in collaboration with Serum India), Zydus Cadila’s vaccine, and Bharat Biotech’s Intranasal Vaccine. Safety and efficacy are the Union government’s primary concerns while granting emergency use authorisation (EUA) to any Covid-19 vaccine in the country,” the sources had told ANI.

The Russian vaccine has an effectiveness of 91.6 per cent. Russia registered Sputnik V for public use in August, the first country to do so, though the approval came before the start of the large-scale trial in September.

The EUA of Sputnik V comes at a time when India is facing the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic with the number of new cases increasing each day.