The Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) will begin manufacturing Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the month of September, it was announced on Tuesday.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said while SII will be commencing the production of Sputnik V in September, there are some other manufactures as well which are ready to produce the Russia-developed vaccine in India.

“The first batch of Sputnik vaccine is expected to be produced at SII’s facilities in September,” an RDIF statement said.

“As part of the technical transfer process, SII has already received cell and vector samples from the Gamaleya Center. With their import approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the cultivation process has begun,” it added.

The plan is to produce more than 300 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in India per year, the RDIF said.

It may be noted that India has already started administering Sputnik V vaccine – the third jab to be approved by the country after Covishield and Covaxin.

Meanwhile, Dr Reddys Laboratories Ltd announced yesterday that the Sputnik V vaccine is now available in 50 cities and towns across India.

It was Dr Reddy’s that had first introduced the Sputnik V vaccine in the country on May 14.

“Starting initially in Hyderabad today, the soft launch rollout of Sputnik V has scaled up speedily and reached cities and towns all over India- including but not limited to Hyderabad, Vizag, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, NCR, Chennai, Miryalaguda, Vijayawada, Baddi, Kolhapur, Kochi, Raipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik,” the pharmaceutical firm said in a tweet on Monday.

Sputnik V has been developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.