Russia’s Gamaleya Center defends production facilities for Sputnik V jab

Russia’s Gamaleya Center on Thursday said that it has ensured strict quality control at all Sputnik V production sites and not found any replication component of the adenoviruses found in batches produced.

The statement comes in response to the decision by Brazilian regulator ANVISA to deny approval to the vaccine after it said that there was replicated component of the AD virus were found.

India is one of the countries that has approved the Sputnik V vaccine, and the country is set to receive 50 million doses of the vaccine from Russia in May. Russian Development Investment Fund (RDIF) did not respond to query from ET on whether its manufacturing partners are taking precautions to ensure quality of the vaccines are maintained.

In India Dr Reddy’s is distributing the vaccines, however RDIF has tied up with Strides, Hetero Pharma, Panacea, to produce this vaccine. Sputnik V uses two AD virus component for vaccination- AD 26 and AD 5, both need to be given in an interval of 21 days.