"RDIF ... and Stelis Biopharma Pvt. Ltd., the biopharmaceutical division of Strides, a global pharmaceutical company headquartered in India, have partnered to produce and supply a minimum of 200 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus sufficient to vaccinate 100 million people," RDIF said in a press release.
Supplies are expected to start in the third quarter of the year.
The partners will cooperate on potential additional deliveries beyond the initial agreement, Strides Group Founder Arun Kumar said.
"The Russian vaccine with efficacy of 91.6% is one of the best vaccines against coronavirus in the world. The significant vaccine volumes, which will be produced jointly with Stelis, will help to widen access to the vaccine on a global scale," RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev noted, as quoted in the press release.
Sputnik V, developed by the Russian Gamaleya research institute, was the world’s first registered vaccine against COVID-19. A large number of countries, including Belarus, Argentina, Serbia, Algeria, Hungary, Iran and the UAE, have allowed the use of the vaccine.