Sputnik too in Serum stable, plans 300 million doses a year

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, was granted emergency use authorisation in India in May.

Written by: Prabha Raghavan, Anuradha Mascarenhas

5 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 14, 2021 07:25 AM IST

Second batch of Russian COVID-19 vaccine reaches Hyderabad

The Centre had fixed the price of the vaccine at Rs 1,145 per dose.

Covishield-maker Serum Institute of India (SII) has added yet another brand to its growing portfolio of Covid-19 vaccines, unveiling plans on Tuesday to manufacture Russia’s Sputnik V over the next two months.

SII’s addition to a growing list of Indian partners for Sputnik V would enable the country to churn out over a billion doses of the Russian vaccine every year. It is also likely to help improve supply of the vaccine in India, where a soft launch has already taken place through vials imported from Russia but doses from most domestic manufacturers are still awaited.

Explained | Explained: How Sputnik V works against Covid-19, and how effectively

SII, through its partnership with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), intends to produce over 300 million doses of Sputnik V per year, said Russia’s sovereign wealth fund in a statement. This takes India’s annual production capacity of this vaccine to nearly 1.2 billion doses a year.

The Pune-headquartered vaccine maker has already received samples of the cell and vector — crucial components to make the vaccine — from the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology as part of the technical transfer process. The cultivation process has already begun.

“We hope to make millions of doses in the coming months with trial batches starting in the month of September,” said SII CEO Adar Poonawalla.

“We expect the ramp-up to be quite quick…we’ve actually been working with Serum for the last three months,” said RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev.

“Strategic partnership between RDIF & Serum Institute of India is a major step to substantially increase vaccine production capabilities demonstrating a perfect example of joining forces and expertise to save lives both in India and around the world” – RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev pic.twitter.com/ztHgpeaVws

— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) July 13, 2021

RDIF has tied up with six other companies to make over 850 million doses of Sputnik V in India. These include Gland Pharma, Stelis Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Hetero Biopharma, Virchow Biotech and Morepen. It also has an agreement with Hyderabad’s Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to supply around 250 million doses to the Indian market.

DRL had conducted a “limited pilot soft launch” of Sputnik V in India on May 14, expecting commercial shipments by mid-June. Nearly a month after this expected timeline, the company is still in the soft launch phase, with domestic production from RDIF’s Indian partners yet to pick up.

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“Neither the ongoing soft commercial launch nor work towards its ramp-up in India have been put on hold,” said DRL in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the soft launch rollout had been scaled up “speedily” and reached at least 51 cities. “Dr Reddy’s will strengthen the commercial rollout of Sputnik V in the coming weeks,” it said.

According to Dmitriev, “some” of the manufacturers have already produced batches of the vaccine that have been verified by the Gamaleya Research Institute in Moscow for their quality. These manufacturers are already in the process of commercially producing or will begin manufacturing Sputnik V on a commercial basis “in the next one or two months,” he said. “We believe September is a key month when Sputnik will really be scaled up in India,” he added.

Doses manufactured here will be provided on priority to India, which has recorded around 30.50 million cases of Covid-19 and over 410,000 deaths from the virus during the ongoing pandemic.

“We are in discussions with the Indian government to enable us to have some export, of course after the immediate needs of the Indian population have been met,” said Dmitriev. “We will see how it will be produced and for how many people,” he added.

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According to him, the number of people receiving the vaccine could vary because of the possibility of RDIF receiving an emergency approval here through DRL to use Sputnik Light — its one-shot vaccine.

According to the government’s CoWIN portal, about 74.66 million people have been fully vaccinated in India, and 305.26 million have been partially vaccinated.

Expectations are that Sputnik V may also be used in mix-and-match scenarios with SII’s other Covid-19 vaccines in India, according to Dmitriev. The Russian vaccine has already been tested in mix-and-match studies with the AstraZeneca vaccine (on which Covishield is based) in countries like Azerbaijan and the results may be released “in the next two weeks, by the end of July,” he said.

“We are open to a mix-and-match approach with (the) Covishield vaccine in India. We believe it can produce great results…we believe that the trials in Azerbaijan will show high efficacy of this approach,” said Dmitriev.

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This will be SII’s third agreement to contract manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine after its agreement to make the Indian version of the AstraZeneca-University of Oxford vaccine (Covishield) and Novavax’s protein vaccine (Covovax). The Pune vaccine maker is also in the process of developing a Covid-19 vaccine in the UK with Codagenix.

Anuradha Mascarenhas

Anuradha Mascarenhas is a Senior Editor at The Indian Express, based in Pune. With a career spanning three decades, she is one of the most respected voices in Indian journalism regarding healthcare, science and environment and research developments. She also takes a keen interest in covering women's issues . Professional Background Education: A gold medalist in Communication and Journalism from Savitribai Phule Pune University and a Master’s degree in Literature. Author: She authored the biography At The Wheel Of Research, which chronicles the life and work of Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the former Chief Scientist at the WHO. Key Focus: She combines scientific accuracy with storytelling, translating complex medical research into compelling public and human-interest narratives. Awards and Recognition Anuradha has won several awards including the Press Council of India's national award for excellence in journalism under the gender based reporting category in 2019 and the Laadli Media award (gender sensitivity -2024). A recipient of the Lokmat journalism award (gender category-2022), she was also shortlisted for the RedInk awards for excellence in journalism-2021. Her debut book At The Wheel Of Research, an exclusive biography of Dr Soumya Swaminathan the inaugural chief scientist of World Health Organisation was also nominated in the Popular Choice Category of JK Paper AUTHER awards. She has also secured competitive fellowships including the Laadli Media Fellowship (2022), the Survivors Against TB – New Research in TB Media Fellowship (2023) and is part of the prestigious 2025 India Cohort of the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey.” Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025) 1. Cancer & Specialized Medical Care "Tata Memorial finds way to kill drug-resistant cancer cells" (Nov 26, 2025): Reporting on a breakthrough for triple-negative breast cancer, one of the most aggressive forms of the disease. Discipline, diet and purpose; How a 97-year-old professor defies ageing'' (Nov 15, 2025) Report about Prof Gururaj Mutalik, the first Head of Department at Pune's B J Government Medical College who at 97 credits his longevity to healthy habits and a strong sense of purpose. 2. Environmental Health (The "Breathless Pune" Series) Long-term exposure even to 'moderate' air leads to chronic heart, lung, kidney issues" (Nov 26, 2025): Part of an investigative series highlighting that even "safe" pollution levels are damaging to vital organs. "For every 10 µg/m3 increase in PM2.5 level, there was 6-8% jump in medicine sales" (Nov 23, 2025): Using commercial data to prove the direct link between air quality and respiratory illnesses in Pune. 3. Lifestyle & Wellness News "They didn't let cancer, diabetes and heart disease stop them from travelling" (Dec 22, 2025): A collaborative piece featuring survivors who share practical tips for traveling with chronic conditions. At 17, his BP shot up to 200/120 mmHG; Lancet study flags why child and teen hypertension doubled between 2000 and 2020'' (Nov 12,2025)--A report that focusses on 17-year-old-boy's hypertensive crisis and reflects the rising global trend of high blood pressure among children and adolescents. 4. Scientific Recognition & Infrastructure For promoting sci-comm, gender diversity: IUCAA woman prof highlighted in Nature" (Nov 25, 2025): Covering the global recognition of Indian women scientists in gender studies and physics. Pune researchers find a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way from early universe'' (December 3, 2025)- A report on how Indian researchers discovered a massive galaxy that existed when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old , one of the earliest to have been observed so far. Signature Beat: Health, Science & Women in Leadership Anuradha is known for her COVID-19 reportage, where she was one of the first journalists to provide detailed insights into the Covishield and Covaxin trials. She has a dedicated interest in gender diversity in health and science, often profiling women researchers who are breaking the "leaky pipeline" in STEM fields. Her writing style is scrupulous, often featuring interviews with top-tier scientists and health experts from various institutions. ... Read More

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