Moscow, Mar 19 (IANS): The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Indian pharmaceutical firm Stelis Biopharma on Friday announced its partnership to produce and supply a minimum of 200 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19.

The agreement between RDIF and Stelis Biopharma was reached under the aegis of Enso Healthcare LLP (part of Enso Group), RDIF's coordination partner for sourcing Sputnik V vaccines in India.

"We are delighted to announce our agreement with Stelis Biopharma for a significant capacity of Sputnik V," Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said in a statement.

"The significant vaccine volumes, which will be produced jointly with Stelis, will help to widen access to the vaccine on a global scale," he added.

Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against the novel coronavirus infection, is now approved for use in over 50 countries. It is a two-dose vaccine which uses two different human adenoviral vectors in the course of vaccination.

The vaccine demonstrates a 91.6 per cent efficacy rate as confirmed by a peer-reviewed study published in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, which found the vaccine to offer consistent and strong protective effect across all participant age groups.

The parties intend to commence supplies from the the third quarter of 2021.

Stelis will also continue to work with the RDIF to provide additional supply volumes beyond the initial agreement, the company said.