Panacea Biotec up 5% as Co begins producing Sputnik V vaccine in India

Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund), and Panacea Biotech announced the launch of production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus

Shares of Panacea Biotec were frozen at 5 per cent upper circuit at Rs 406.10 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund), announced the launch of production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus.

The stock of the biotechnology company was trading close to its 52-week high level of Rs 407.20, touched on April 28, 2021. Till 09:28 am, a combined 143,000 equity shares changed hands and there were pending buy orders for around 960,000 shares on the NSE and BSE.

“The first batch produced at the company’s facilities at Baddi will be shipped to the Gamaleya Center for quality control. Full-scale production of the vaccine is due to start this summer, Company’s facilities comply with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards and are prequalified by World Health Organization (WHO),” Panacea Biotec said in a press release.

Sputnik V was registered in India under the emergency use authorization procedure on April 12, 2021 and vaccination against coronavirus with the Russian vaccine started on May 14. As announced in April, RDIF and Panacea have agreed to produce 100 million doses per year of Sputnik V.

To date, Sputnik V has been registered in 66 countries globally with total population of over 3.2 billion people. Efficacy of Sputnik V is 97.6 per cent based on the analysis of data on coronavirus infection rate among those in Russia vaccinated with both components of Sputnik V from December 5, 2020 to March 31, 2021.

The vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors and uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots, the company said.

Panacea Biotec is an innovation-led biopharmaceutical group that focuses on discovery, development, and commercialization of prescription medicines primarily, focusing on Vaccines, Diabetes, Transplant, Gastroenterology, and Oncology.