Developers of single shot Sputnik Light vaccine say it will be produced in India

The developers of Russia’s Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine, the single shot version of Sputnik V, said on Thursday that India will be among the countries where the new variant will be produced in the coming months.

Russia’s health ministry and Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the developers of the vaccine, announced on Wednesday that Sputnik Light had received authorisation for use in Russia.

Sputnik Light demonstrated 79.4% efficacy, according to an analysis of data gathered 28 days after the shot was administered as part of Russia’s mass vaccination programme between December 2020 and April 2021, the vaccine’s developers said in a statement.

Gamaleya Center had also demonstrated during laboratory tests that Sputnik Light had proven effective against all new strains of the coronavirus, the statement said.

Phase I and II of the safety and immunogenicity study of Sputnik Light had demonstrated that it can elicit the development of antigen specific IgG antibodies in 96.9% of individuals on the 28th day after vaccination, and that elicits the development of virus neutralising antibodies in 91.67% of individuals on the 28th day after immunisation.

No serious adverse events were registered after vaccination with Sputnik Light, the statement said. The infection rate among vaccinated subjects from the 28th day from the date of the injection was 0.277%. Over the same period, the infection rate among unvaccinated adults was 1.349%.

The Phase III clinical study involving 7,000 people was conducted in multiple countries, including Russia, the UAE and Ghana. The interim results are expected in May.

RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev told a news briefing that Sputnik Light could be a “key solution for many countries with viral surges” as it had resulted in “100% protection against severe infections”.

“Sputnik V will be the core vaccine while Sputnik Light will be cheaper and more affordable, and ensure that more people can be vaccinated quickly. Sputnik Light will be registered in several countries by next week and we are talks with regulators in several countries,” he said.

“We hope that the 64 countries that have registered Sputnik V will also register Sputnik Light,” he added.

Dmitriev named India, South Korea and China among the countries that will produce Sputnik Light. “We have partnerships with more than 20 producers in 10 countries and they will make both versions of the vaccine,” he said.

He said Sputnik Light works well with all existing mutations of the Coronavirus as it “includes all the mutations in its code”. Sputnik Light can also be used as a booster shot for other vaccines and trials are currently underway with AstraZeneca, he said.

“Sputnik Light makes a greater booster shot with other vaccines. We are doing trials with AstraZeneca but it can also be used with others. It can be a booster shot to upgrade other vaccines for all mutations, subject to additional trials,” Dmitriev said.

“Regardless of politics, all countries should come together to fight the virus. It is now a fight between mutations and vaccines,” he said.

The cost of Sputnik Light globally will be less than $10, and it has simple storage requirements, at +2 +8, which provide for easy logistics, the statement said.

The developers of Sputnik V, which has been granted approval for emergency use by India’s drug controller, have tied up with Indian pharmaceutical firms such as Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Gland Pharma, Hetero Biopharma, Panacea Biotec, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech to manufacture more than 850 million doses a year.