OREANDA-NEWS. The government of the Indian state of Kerala intends to sign an agreement with Russia on the intention to create in the state a complex for the production of the Russian vaccine against coronavirus Sputnik V, reports India Today, citing Kerala Minister of Industry Pi Rajiv.

"Negotiations began long ago when there was an acute shortage of vaccines. Preliminary discussions are underway, both sides are discussing terms. The chief secretary and industry representatives are in talks with Russian representatives, the general counsel and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The letter of intent is to be signed within three days." - said Rajiv.

According to the minister, 10 acres (about 4 hectares) of land have already been allocated for the project on the territory of the Life Science Park in the city of Thiruvananthapuram.

The Sputnik V vaccine was approved in India on April 12, 2021 as part of the fast track registration process. India is the leading manufacturing hub for the Sputnik V vaccine. RDIF has already entered into agreements with a number of pharmaceutical manufacturers in this country (Serum Institute of India, Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma, Virchow Biotech and Morepen) for the production of a Russian vaccine.

Sputnik V is approved in countries with a combined population of over 3.7 billion. Sputnik V ranks second in the world in terms of the number of approvals received by government regulators. The vaccine efficacy was 97.6% based on the analysis of data on 3.8 million vaccinated Russians, which is higher than the data previously published by the medical journal The Lancet (91.6%), the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the Gamaleya Research Center reported earlier.