Kazakhstan Says it’s ready to Start Production of Sputnik Light

Karaganda Pharmaceutical Complex (KPC) is ready to produce Russia-developed vaccine Sputnik Light if Kazakhstan and Russian Direct Investments Fund (RDIF) make a deal, according to the TASS news agency.

As the pharmaceutical complex press service noted, the plant has everything needed for this new vaccine production and the ball is now in the RDIF’s court.

«We’ve got new equipment, qualified staff and all the technical capabilities to produce any type of vaccine,» the press service said. The move has followed Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev‘s order to buy and then to start producing Sputnik Light inside the country. 

Since February 2021 KPC has been producing a two-dose vaccine Sputnik V. So far the plant has shipped about five million doses and as expected will produce additional two million doses of the vaccine in August and September.

Among other vaccines Kazakhstan uses to make sure its citizens can get vaccinated, are locally developed QazVac vaccine and Chinese vaccines Hayat-Vax by Sinopharm and CoronaVac by Sinovac Biotech. The country bought one million and 500,000 doses of each vaccine respectively.

On July 15 RDIF declared that the Kazakhstani health system had registered Sputnik Light. According to reports the effectiveness of the vaccine is 79.4% on the 28th day after the vaccination. This figure is a result of trials in Russia over the period from December 5, 2020, to April 15, 2021, when some people were vaccinated with only one dose. This 80% rate of efficacy is even bigger than some other vaccines that require two shots, RDIF said.

Kazakhstani medicine regulator has approved for Sputnik Light to be used in the country during the following eight months. So far no serious negative reactions to the vaccine have been registered.