Huons Global Consortium to manufacture Russia’s Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine

Huons Global said that a consortium led by the company would manufacture Sputnik Light, a single-dose version of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V.

Huons Global Consortium will manufacture Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik Light in addition to Sputnik V.

The Huons Global Consortium recently completed final discussions with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on the local production of Sputnik Light, the company said in a news release on Monday.

“At the request of the RDIF, the consortium has decided to produce the Sputnik Light in parallel with the Sputnik V,” a consortium official said. “In producing Sputnik Light, the company will continue to cooperate with Huons Global Consortium, participated in by Prestige Biopharma, Humedix, and Boran Pharma.”

The consortium has already secured cells and viruses to produce the Sputnik Light vaccine, it said. A Russian technical team will visit Korea in July to transfer Sputnik V and Light technology.

The consortium plans to start trial production from August and expects to enter into full-scale production in September or October after going through the validation process.

It aims to produce 20 to 30 million doses per month by the end of this year and plans to stabilize both production and shipment from next year when it completes facility expansion.

To this end, Prestige Biopharma is building a vaccine center in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, and is installing eight 2000-liter cell incubators (bioreactors). Humedix and Boran Pharma are also expanding lines for the packaging of finished products in addition to existing facilities. Humedix plans to complete line expansion in July and Boran Pharma within this year.

Sputnik Light is a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology under Russia’s Ministry of Health and approved for use in Russia in May.

To date, it has received approval in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Venezuela, and Mongolia.

Like Sputnik V, Sputnik Light uses adenovirus as a vector. However, unlike Sputnik V, which uses two types of vectors, the vaccine only one type of vector (adenovirus type 26) and requires only one vaccination.

“The vaccine has a known preventive efficacy of 79.4 percent, and the immunity maintenance period is about three to four months. The phase 3 clinical trial has been underway since the end of February on about 7,000 participants from Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Ghana,” the company said.