The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), and Morepen Laboratories, one of the leading manufacturers of pharmaceutical products in India, on Tuesday announced the production of the test batch of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in an exclusive facility in state of Himachal Pradesh (HP).

The first batch will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center for the quality control. RDIF and Morepen Laboratories signed a cooperation agreement in June 2021 and are actively implementing the technology transfer.

Sputnik V was granted an emergency use authorization in India on April 12, 2021. India is the leading production hub for Sputnik V. RDIF had reached agreements earlier with other leading pharmaceutical companies in India - Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech. In total, agreements with partners in India provide for production of more than 850 million doses of Sputnik V per year.

To date, Sputnik V has been registered in 67 countries globally with a total population of over 3.5 billion people. The data obtained by regulators of a number of countries during the vaccination of the population, including Argentina, Serbia, Bahrain, Hungary, Mexico and others, demonstrates that Sputnik V is one of the safest and most effective vaccines against coronavirus.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, commented, "As the pandemic is yet far from over and new, more dangerous variants of coronavirus are being detected in various regions of the world, RDIF is increasing capacities for production of Sputnik V in India, one of the key hubs. Agreement with Morepen Laboratories provides for larger amount of Sputnik V to be available both for India and our partners globally to speed up the vaccination with one of the best vaccines in the world."

Shares of the company gained Rs 5.90, or 9.07%, to settle  at  Rs 70.95.  The total volume of shares traded  was  3,203,489 at  the BSE (Tuesday).