COVID-19 news: India gets third vaccine as Russia's Sputnik V gets nod for emergency use

The Centre on Monday granted approval to Sputnik-V, the vaccine against the coronavirus disease developed by Russia, for emergency use in the country. The vaccine is developed by Russia's Gamaleya national center of epidemiology and microbiology.

This is the third COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) after AsztraZeneca's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin.

SEC approval is based on very strong immunogenicity data shown by the vaccine on the Indian Population.

Sputnik V, developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, has proved 91.6% effective against COVID-19 and has been approved for use in more than 50 countries.

Sputnik V is being marketed in India by Dr Reddy's Laboratories, which has helped run a small trial for the drug in the country to test its safety and ability to generate an immune response.