First lot of 1.5 lakh Sputnik V doses lands in India
On a day that India threw open vaccinations to all citizens over 18 years of age, the first lot of 1.5 lakh Russian Covid-19 vaccines Sputnik V arrived in Hyderabad from Russia.
The company said that the rollout of the consignment will be subject to the necessary clearances, which will be processed over the next few days.
“This initial quantity will be used across different channels as a pilot to line up our supply chain for the larger vaccination program rollout. Subsequent consignments will arrive in the next few weeks,”Dr Reddy’s Laboratories CEO (API& Services) Deepak Sapra said.
The imported vaccine is likely to be priced at around $10 per dose in line with the uniform global pricing, top company officials had said earlier.
Dr Reddy’s has tied up with Russian sovereign fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) for distributing over 125 million people equivalent doses of Sputnik V in India. Sputnik V comprises two human adenoviral vectors – Ad26 and Ad5 — that will be injected 21 days apart.
RDIF has tied up with Gland Pharma (252 m), Hetero Biopharma (100 million), Virchow Biotech (200 m), Panacea Biotech (100 m) and Stelis Biopharma (200 m), to manufacture 852 million doses or 426 million people equivalent doses of Sputnik V, while Dr Reddy’s has a tie-up with Shilpa Medicare for an undisclosed number of doses.
