The Russian Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 will be tested in India on 100 volunteers, the Indian Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation's Drug Controller General (DCGI) told Sputnik on Thursday. DCGI has granted permission to pharmaceutical giant Dr Reddy's Laboratories for conducting tests. However, the date and time of the test will be determined by the company. Sputnik quoted the organisation as saying that the vaccine will be tested in the second phase of its clinical trials before moving on to phase 3.

Last week, the expert committee of DCGI had recommended granting permission to Dr Reddy's Laboratories for conducting phase 2 clinical trials of Russian COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Sputnik V, in India. According to a government official, Dr Reddy's Lab has stated that in phase 2 clinical trial--"would include 100 subjects and for phase 3, it would take 1400 subjects." "Once the pharma company would submit the safety and immunogenicity data of phase 2, it would be analysed by the expert panel and then they can proceed for the phase 3 trial," the official added.