Unable to promote its big inventory of Covid vaccine Sputnik Light amid the Russia-Ukraine battle, the Bengaluru-based Stelis Biopharma has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting for procurement of the jabs for inoculating residents right here or supplying to different nations beneath the Vaccine Maitri programme. Stelis Biopharma, the biopharmaceutical arm of Strides Pharma Science, stated it couldn’t promote 2.5 crore items of the single-dose vaccine manufactured by it as a result of a number of constraints following the Russian-Ukraine conflict.
The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had granted emergency use permission to Sputnik Light, topic to sure regulatory provisions, in February this yr. However, it’s at the moment not being administered within the nation. In the letter written on May 13, Arun Kumar, Founder and Director of Stelis Biopharma Limited, stated that after the prime minister had requested the trade to gear as much as deal with the pandemic, the agency invested over Rs 700 crore to arrange a state-of the-art vaccine manufacturing facility inside six months regardless of the COVID-19-induced restrictions and shortly commenced the manufacturing of Sputnik Light.The firm additionally acquired authorities approvals to provide and export the jabs.
“We are proud to state that after having been granted due approvals by the Government of India, we started manufacturing Sputnik Light in India and produced no less than 2.5 crore vaccine doses. However, due to several constraints related to Russia, these vaccines are lying unsold with us at present,” Kumar stated. Kumar requested that the federal government ought to purchase the obtainable doses, failing which these will get wasted and the corporate will face an enormous monetary loss. “We request the Government of India to procure our readily available vaccine and administer it to the people of India or donate it to other countries under the India Aid / Covid Maitri programme,” he said. Sputnik Light is a one-dose vaccine and is similar as component-1 of Sputnik V. In March 2021, Stelis had partnered with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, to provide and provide the vaccine.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”