MOSCOW, July 13 (Reuters) - The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Serum Institute of India (SII) announced plans on Tuesday to start producing Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in India in September.
Russia's sovereign wealth fund, which is promoting the vaccine globally, said the plan was to produce over 300 million doses of the vaccine per year in India, the leading production hub for Sputnik V.
SII, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, has already received cell and vector samples from Russia's Gamaleya Centre, RDIF said.
"With their import approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), the cultivation process has begun," RDIF said in a statement.
Kirill Dmitriev, RDIF's CEO, said he expected the first batches of the vaccine to be produced in the coming months.
Sputnik V vaccine has been registered in 67 countries globally with a total population of over 3.5 billion people, RDIF added. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn/Polina Nikolskaya; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by Tom Balmforth)