Sputnik V has reportedly hit a production problem in India. According to reports coming in today, the issue is with the development of the second dose of its Covid-19 vaccine in the country. Sources in the government say the Russian vaccine maker is facing production issues with producing the second component (AD5) of the adenovirus vector-based vaccine.
Earlier today Sputnik V claimed it was the 1st vaccine cocktail in the world as it pioneered the mix and match approach now followed by others. Studies on Sputnik V combination with AstraZeneca in several countries have been going on since Feb, 1st results were published on July 30.
Sputnik V Vaccine faces new hurdles in India
Sources reports published today supposedly say a team of Russian scientists reached India for over a month to try and wriggle out of the technical issues being encountered by domestic manufacturers in producing AD5. Further, the second component of the vaccine is harder to manufacture because of its design as an adenovirus vector-based vaccine.
Unlike other vaccines which use the same composition of doses for the first and the second shot, Sputnik V uses two different components in its Covid vaccine – two types of adenovirus vectors (rAd26) for the first shot and (rAd5) for the second vaccination. While Ad26 is the main vaccine, Ad5 is a booster shot which is given 21 days or three weeks apart.