Morepen Labs to export Sputnik Light to other countries in two months: Sushil Suri, MD and Chairman

Morepen Laboratories will start exporting the recently approved Sputnik Light vaccine in two months, said Sushil Suri, Chairman and Managing Director on Tuesday. In an interaction with BusinessLine after the company released its quarterly results, he said the company will file a fresh application for the amendment to the drug license received for the manufacturing 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, do the fill and finish work and export it to other countries. These vaccines will not be made for India as other jabs are already available for a lesser price here,” Suri said.

He added that after SII gets the license for manufacturing, Morepen will get into a pact with RDIF and SII for the fill, finish and distribution of vaccines to other countries. 

Sputnik troubles

Last year, the Russian Direct Investment Fund 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 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.

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“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 said.

He added that he is looking at 25-30 per cent growth for this year.

Meanwhile, Suri said, the company has no plans to manufacture Covid products in coming times as it is a conservative manufacturer and Covid products are regulated by the government because of which they can’t make enough profits. Covid products are also seasonal, he added. 

Q3 results

Morepen Laboratories’ net profit fell by 10.5 per cent to ₹21.52 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2021. The drug manufacturer had reported a net profit of ₹24.64 crore in the same period of the previous year. Sequentially, net profit declined significantly by 37.50 per cent from ₹34.42 crore in the July-September quarter. 

However, net revenues for the third quarter rose by 29 per cent to ₹399.19 crore against ₹310.26 crore in the same quarter of FY21.

Besides this the company said that its board has also approved the allotment of compulsorily convertible preference shares (CCPS), subject to approval by the shareholders and regulators, to banks, financial institutions and others, in place of optionally convertible preference shares (OCPS) and cumulative redeemable preference shares (CRPS), of ₹114.65 crore held by them as part of its loan restructuring program in the year 2007 under corporate debt restructuring (CDR) mechanism. 

The fresh preference shares will be converted into equity shares within a maximum period of 18 months from the allotment date. The company is hoping to complete the whole process within three months, its release said. 

“The conversion of bank’s preference shares, outstanding since many years, into equity capital is a big milestone and we are thankful to all the banks for granting their approval. This was the last leg of the corporate debt restructuring (CDR) process and the company will have no outstanding liability in terms of unredeemed preference capital,” Suri said.