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.

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.