Covid Vaccine-Maker Suffers Cyber Attacks

Pharmaceutical company Dr Reddy's which was recently given permission to begin final stage trials of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine says it has been hit by a series serious cyber-attack. The India-based company said it had isolated all of its data centre services to contain the attack, although the company has refused to comment on whether or not its manufacturing facilities had been affected. 

Sites around the world have been affected, including those in the UK, Brazil, India, Russia and the US. The phone lines for the company's UK sites in Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire went-down, but the company has not said if this is related. 

Chief information officer Mukesh Rathi has said: "In the wake of a detected cyber-attack, we have isolated all data centre services to take required preventive actions.... we are anticipating all services to be up within 24 hours and we do not foresee any major impact on our operations due to this incident." In India, local media have reported that production at some of Dr Reddy's facilities has been disrupted.

Dr Reddy's was established in 1986 and is headquartered in Hyderabad. It now develops and manufactures more than 200 products covering gastroenterology, oncology, pain management and cardiovascular conditions. In the UK, Dr Reddy's is a supplier of medicines for the NHS, with headquarters in Beverley, Yorkshire.

Last week it was announced that the company and Russia's sovereign wealth fund had received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct a human clinical trial of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in India.

Both private and state-sponsored groups are targeting pharmaceuticals because of the economic and influential advantages a successful vaccine will provide to countries, according to researchers. The India-based company said it had isolated all of its data centre services to contain the attack.

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