The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given green signal to emergency use of single-dose Sputnik Light Covid vaccine in the country, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted. 

“DCGI has granted emergency use permission to Single-dose Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine in India. This is the ninth Covid-19 vaccine in the country. This will further strengthen the nation’s collective fight against the pandemic,” Mandaviya said. The decision comes after Dr Reddy’s Laboratories said it had submitted a proposal to the DCGI to register Sputnik Light vaccine as a booster dose for the fight against Covid-19. 

‘Working with govt’

“With regard to Sputnik, we are now ready with capacities in India. We are working with the government for registering Sputnik Light as a vaccine and as a booster dose of Sputnik V,” Erez Israeli, CEO of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories had said recently. Last year in April, the company received DCGI approval to import the Sputnik vaccine into India for restricted use in emergency situations.

Sputnik Light has been made by Russia’s Gamaleya Center, built on a human adenovirus vector platform. It is similar to component-1 of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine that has been used in the country’s national vaccination programme. So far, India has administered nearly 12 lakh doses of Sputnik V to its adult population.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund had earlier said the single-dose vaccine has demonstrated 70 per cent efficacy against the disease caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19. Russia had permitted the use of a single-dose Sputnik Light version of its Covid vaccine in May last year.