Dr Reddy's shut global plants after data breach days after approval to conduct Russian vaccine trial

Mumbai, 22-Oct-2020

Pharmaceutical giant Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) shut down its global plants after reporting a data breach in its servers. DRL plants at US, UK, Brazil, Russia and India have been impacted due to the data breach which occurred between 4-5 pm US time. The management refused to comment on the matter. The incident occurred just days after the company received Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) nod to conduct phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials for reworked protocol for the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in India. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, on October 17 announced that they will conduct an adaptive phase 2/3 human clinical trial for the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in India. This will be a multi-center and randomized controlled study, which will include safety and immunogenicity study. Earlier in September 2020, Dr Reddy’s and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine and its distribution in India. As part of the partnership, RDIF shall supply 100 million doses of the vaccine to Dr. Reddy’s upon regulatory approval in India. “This is a significant development that allows us to commence the clinical trial in India and we are committed to bringing in a safe and efficacious vaccine to combat the pandemic,” G V Prasad, Co-chairman and Managing Director, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, said. “We are pleased to collaborate with the Indian regulators and in addition to Indian clinical trial data, we will provide safety and immunogenicity study from the Russian phase 3 clinical trial. This data will further strengthen the clinical development of the Sputnik V vaccine in India,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, added.