DR REDDY’S-SPUTNIK V DEAL : EXPLAINED

DR REDDY’S-SPUTNIK V DEAL : EXPLAINED

Context

Recently, Drugmaker Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) announced that it will distribute 100 million (10 crore) doses of Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in India.

What is the Sputnik V vaccine?

• It is developed on the technology known as ‘human adenoviral vector’ technology.
• Adenoviruses cause a wide range of illnesses ranging from fevers, coughs, and sore throats to pink eye, diarrhoea, and bladder infections.
• This virus is modified and weakened so that it cannot replicate in the human body.
• With respect for vaccines, Adenoviruses will act like a Trojan Horse which will carry instructions for the cells in the human body to produce the spiky outer layer (spike protein) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
• This vaccine is expected to help the body recognise the spike protein as a foreign substance and will build an immune response against it so that it can tackle the real virus when it tries to infect.
• Sputnik V uses two different genetically modified adenoviruses to carry the spike protein.
• The vaccine containing the second adenovirus is given 21 days after the first one, and is expected to “boost” the body’s immune response and build “long-lasting immunity”.
• It is developed by Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, the Sputnik V vaccine was approved for public use in Russia.