India-made Sputnik V Covid vaccine may be available from September: Dr Reddy’s

The company also said that it has received a collective 36 lakh doses of component 1 and 2 of Sputnik V vaccine jabs in India from the RDIF.

Locally manufactured Sputnik V vaccines against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) are expected to be available in India within September or October, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories told news agency ANI on Monday.

In a release, Dr Reddy's Laboratories further stated that since Sputnik V vaccine's soft pilot in Hyderabad in May, it has spread to around 80 Indian cities.

"We have received 31.5 lakh doses of component 1 and 4.5 lakh doses of component 2 of the Sputnik V vaccine in India. We are working closely with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to ramp up supplies. We are also working closely with our partners in India for manufacturing readiness,” ANI reported quoting a release by the company.

The company further stated that the Russian vaccine launch has seen a “gradual and steady commercial scale-up and roll-out” all over India since its soft pilot in May and now spreading to around 80 Indian cities.

“We have partnered with major hospitals around the country and set up our cold chain infrastructure across more than 300 locations since the vaccine requires -18°C temperature,” the release added.

Notably, the RDIF said on Saturday that the production of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines in India is expected to come “fully on stream” in September.

“RDIF expects India to become a major production hub of Sputnik V,” a statement issued by Russia’s sovereign wealth fund read.

In the statement, the RDIF mentioned the Pune-based world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SII) among several pharmaceutical companies with which it has joined hands to manufacture Sputnik V jabs in India.

Notably, SII will produce over 300 million doses of the Russian vaccine annually, starting this year. On the other hand, RDIF has entered a partnership with Dr Reddy’s Labs to market the first 250 million doses of Sputnik V in India.

The vaccine is a two-dost shot, but as opposed to other two-dose coronavirus vaccines, both the jabs of the Sputnik V vaccine is unidentical. It has been found 91.6% effective against Covid-19 as was observed in its phase 3 clinical trials.

The Russian vaccine’s soft launch rollout commenced initially in Hyderabad on May 14, and since then it has reached many major cities of India such as Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal, Nagpur, Patna, Lucknow, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, and Jaipur, among others.