Shilpa Medicare partners with Dr. Reddy’s for production of Sputnik V

Shilpa Medicare, through its fully-owned subsidiary Shilpa Biologicals, has signed a three-year agreement with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for the production and supply of the Sputnik V vaccine for Covid-19.

The company will undertake production at its biologics research and development cum manufacturing center at Dharwad in Karnataka.

Shilpa Medicare said that the targeted production of the dual vector Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine for the first 12 months is 50 million doses (50 million of component 1 and 50 million of component 2), from the date of start of commercial production.

Shilpa Medicare partners with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories for production of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. Photo courtesy of The Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, which has partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for clinical development of the Sputnik V vaccine and has distribution rights in India and other geographies.

The Indian pharma major will enable the transfer of the Sputnik V vaccine technology to Shilpa Biologicals. The latter will handle the manufacture of the Russian Covid vaccine, while Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories will take care of its distribution/marketing in its marketing territories.

The parties are also said to be exploring the option of manufacturing Sputnik Light, a single dose version of the Sputnik V vaccine in the near future.

Last week, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories launched the Sputnik V Covid vaccine in India at a price of around INR 995 per jab.