Stelis Biopharma’s greenfield facility to export 50 million Sputnik Light doses

Stelis Biopharma, the biotech division of Strides Pharma Science, on Tuesday announced that it had commissioned a large-scale fully integrated vaccine manufacturing facility at Bengaluru. It can make 720 million vaccine doses in a year. The first order the company has is an export order of 50 million doses of the Sputnik Light vaccine for Covid-19.

The facility has been inspected by the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO). Stelis has also received an initial No Objection Certificate (NOC) from CDSCO to export up to 50 million doses of the Sputnik Light Covid-19 vaccine.In March 2021, Stelis had partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) to produce and supply the Russian Sputnik vaccine.

Stelis has now started manufacturing the Sputnik Light vaccine at a commercial scale, and as previously committed, the company is on track to commercialise this vaccine for global markets in Q4FY22.According to the company, the greenfield vaccine facility has been built in 200 days with a modular design to cater to several vaccine formats.

It was also one of the largest viral vector manufacturing sites with a bespoke design for producing the Russian Sputnik Vaccine. The site can offer flexible technologies to manufacture lentivirus, adenovirus and retrovirus products/ vaccines.RDIF had partnered with Stelis Biopharma to supply 200 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in March 2021.