On Monday, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund said that India is going to receive a first batch of Russias Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 from 1st May. He did not state the number of vaccines would be dispatched in the first batch or where it would be made.

India is facing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and is struggling to manage the increasing number of coronavirus cases that are overcrowding hospitals. Countries like Britain, Germany and the United States have promised to send urgent medical supplies.

Dmitriev said that the first doses will be delivered on 1st May and he hoped that the Russian supplies would help India to navigate their way out in this pandemic. Russias RDIF sovereign wealth fund, is marketing Sputnik V globally and has signed agreements with 5 of the leading Indian manufacturers already for more than 850 million vaccine doses for a year.

The RDIF has said that it expects vaccine production in India to reach 50 million doses in a month by summer and to rise even further.

The World Health Organization chief described the situation in India, which is the worlds second-most populous country as "beyond heart-breaking". The WHO is planning to provide extra staff and supplies with oxygen concentrator devices.

Russian pharmaceutical firm Pharmasyntez said that it was ready to ship 1 million packs of the remdesivir antiviral drug to India by end of May, after receiving the approval of Russias government.

Source: ET Healthworld