The government has allowed the export of domestically manufactured Russian single-dose anti-Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik Lite. This vaccine has not yet been approved for emergency use in India. Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero Biopharma Limited has been permitted to export 4 million doses of Sputnik Lite to Russia. India has become a major manufacturing hub for Sputnik V and Sputnik Lite vaccines through partnership with six major producers set up by RDIF Is.
Sputnik Lite is similar to component-1 of Russian vaccine Sputnik V. India’s drug regulator approved the emergency use of Sputnik V in April, which has since been used in India’s anti-Covid-19 vaccination program. India has just approved a two-dose anti-corona vaccine of Sputnik Has been. In fact, the third phase of trials of Sputnik Light is currently going on in Russia. In such a situation, the government is refusing to approve it.
Russian Ambassador Nikolay Kudshev urged the Indian government to allow the export of Sputnik Lite produced by Hetero Biopharma to Russia until the vaccine is approved for emergency use by the drug regulator in India. The company Hetero Biopharma has been allowed to export 4 million doses of Sputnik Light to Russia. The decision was taken this week after detailed deliberations.
Sputnik Lite also has the same components as Sputnik-V. Sputnik V is authorized for emergency use in India and elsewhere. The Lite vaccine has also been approved in many countries, but Indian experts want to know whether the single-dose vaccine works well for Indians or not. However, the success percentage of Sputnik-Lite has been reported to be around 80 percent.