Local drug companies find it hard to produce Sputnik's second component

Indian drug manufacturers who have signed up with Russia's RDIF to produce Sputnik V are struggling to scale up production of the second component of the Covid-19 vaccine, and are now counting on the approval for the single-shot Sputnik Light to salvage the situation, reports Viswanath Pilla.

A top executive of a drug maker, which has signed a pact with RDIF to manufacture and supply up to 200 million doses of Sputnik V, told ET that with the existing technology, it is not viable to manufacture the second dose at scale.

"For example, if we get 100 doses yield of the first component, the second component gives only 10 doses, which means to produce 100 doses of second component, we need to allocate 10 times the manufacturing resources, that makes it financially unviable," said the executive.