HYDERABAD: The full-fledged commercial rollout of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V has been pushed back by at least two weeks due to supply-related issues and mandatory clearances from the
Central Drugs Laboratory
(CDL) at Kasauli.
Even as Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, the Indian partner of Russian Direct Investment Fund (
RDIF
), is awaiting clearance from CDL Kasauli for the 3 million doses that arrived from Russia earlier this month, the arrival of the second dose component is delayed, top officials at Dr Reddy’s Laboratories said.
The biggest tranche of 3 million doses of the first dose component (vector Ad26) landed in Hyderabad on June 1 but second tranche of the second dose component (Ad5) is yet to arrive and is expected to arrive by the end of the month, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories CEO API & services Deepak Sapra told TOI.
Sapra also indicated that clearances from CDL Kasauli for the first tranche of 3 million doses are expected any day now.
Dr Reddy’s Labs had indicated that a full-fledged rollout would happen in mid-June but the limited pilot soft launch continues well after a month after it began in Hyderabad on May 14.
Dr Reddy’s has since scaled up the limited pilot to Vizag, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Baddi, Chennai, Miryalaguda, Kolhapur and now Vijayawada, Nagpur, Raipur and Chandigarh.
However, the company had said it would be vaccinating only its own employees as part of the pilot that is aimed at testing the cold chain as Sputnik V requires storage temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius. Dr Reddy’s received 1.5 lakh doses of the first dose on May 1, followed by 60,000 doses of the second dose on May 16, which were deployed in the pilot rollout.
Sputnik V is the third vaccine to be granted emergency use nod by the Indian drug regulator and could have helped ease the vaccine shortages that the country is facing.
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