Morepen Laboratories will start exporting the recently approved Sputnik Light vaccine in two months, said Sushil Suri, its Chairman and Managing Director. In an interaction with BusinessLine, he said the company will file a fresh application for the amendment to the drug licence received for the manufacture of Sputnik V.
“The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has tied up with the Serum Institute of India (SII) to make Sputnik Light in bulk. We will buy the bulk from SII, and do the fill and finish work and export it to other countries. These vaccines will not be made for India as the other jabs are already available for a lesser price here,” Suri said.
He added that after SII gets the licence for manufacturing, Morepen will get into a pact with RDIF and SII for the fill, finish and distribution of vaccines to other countries.
Last year, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) had tied up with multiple manufacturers in India — including Dr Reddy’s, Dr Morepen and Panacea Biotec among others — for the Sputnik V vaccine. But, because of the difficulties in manufacturing the second component of the vaccine, the developers couldn’t deliver in bulk. So far, only 12 lakh Sputnik V vaccines have been administered.
It is a heterogeneous vaccine that uses two different components in its two doses — Ad26 and Ad5. Sputnik Light is the first shot of Sputnik V.
“On the API side, we are working on 15 new molecules which will expire in the next seven years. We are building capacities for that. We are looking to raise capital for them as we don’t have additional funds at the moment. For medical devices also, we need to build large capacities for global expansion, though we have nearly 56 per cent growth on the domestic side,” Suri saidadded.
Meanwhile, Suri said the company has no plans to manufacture Covid products as they are conservative manufacturers and the Covid products are regulated by the government, because of which they can’t make enough profits. Also Covid products are also seasonal, he added.