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 This highlights the complexity of producing the second shot of
Russia's Sputnik V vaccination, which is made up of two different
products which requires different manufacturing facilities and twice
as many people to make.
That makes Sputnik Light, which is identical to the first Sputnik V
shot and was approved for use by Russia in May, an attractive
short-term solution.
Developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, the vaccine, which the
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said is 79.4% effective
against COVID-19 and costs less than $10 a dose, has been earmarked
for export.
Vikram Punia, president of Pharmasyntez, told Reuters that his firm
was waiting for registration to officially launch a new
manufacturing facility once its first batches of Sputnik Light had
passed quality control tests overseen by the developer.
Sputnik V consists of two different vectors, which are used as a
first and then a booster shot, which are taken 21 days apart. The
vectors are modified human common cold viruses, used to carry the
genetic information into the body that triggers immunity-building.
Pharmasyntez also produced the second component of the Sputnik V
vaccine, but had decided not to expand production because
manufacturing requires significant resources, he said.
Punia had previously told Reuters that the two Sputnik V shots had
to be produced separately due to the risk of contamination, which
required more resources.
"We believe that it is advisable now to work with one component, to
do a lot of it. We did not go on an industrial scale (with the
second)," Punia said.
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 Pharmasyntez plans to make 1
million doses of Sputnik Light a week by the end
of the third quarter or the beginning of the
fourth quarter, he said, adding that the maximum
production volume was 6-8 million doses per
month.
Requests for Sputnik Light have already come
from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America,
Punia added.
The company will ask RDIF, which is responsible
for marketing the Russian vaccine abroad, for
permission to work mostly for export markets
because "domestic (manufacturing) processes have
already been worked out", Punia said.
Russia's BioIntegrator is also only producing
Sputnik Light for now, its co-owner Andrei
Ivaschenko said.
According to agreements with RDIF, production
was organised to mostly supply foreign markets,
he said, adding that work to arrange production
of the second Sputnik V dose was underway.
"The virus is very volatile, and, in fact, it is
necessary to build two factories, each with its
own personnel, which should not intersect so
that there is no cross-contamination of
production", Ivaschenko said.
(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya; Editing by
Alexander Smith)
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