Sputnik V in India: Commercial rollout of vaccine not put on hold, clarifies Dr Reddy's
1 min read 12 Jul 2021, 11:57 PM ISTNeither the ongoing soft commercial launch nor work towards its ramp-up in India have been put on hold, Hyderabad-based pharma giant Dr Reddy's Laboratories said in a statement
PremiumDr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has said that it hasn't put on hold the ongoing soft commercial rollout of Russia's Sputnik V, India's third coronavirus vaccine after Covishield and Covaxin.
"Neither the ongoing soft commercial launch nor work towards its ramp-up in India have been put on hold," the Hyderabad-based pharma giant said in a statement.
Dr Reddy's, which launched Sputnik V on a pilot basis in India on 14 May, will strengthen the commercial roll-out of the Russian vaccine in the coming weeks.
Dr Reddy's also said that the nationwide rollout of the Russian vaccine has now reached 50 cities and towns in the country.
"Starting initially in Hyderabad, today the soft launch roll-out of Sputnik V has scaled up speedily and reached cities and towns all over India - including but not limited to Hyderabad, Vizag, Bengaluru. Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Miryalaguda, Vijayawada. Baddi, Kolhapur, Kochi. Raipur, Chandigarh, Pune. Nagpur, Nashik, Coimbatore, Ranchi, Jaipur. Lucknow, Patna. Bhubaneshwar, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Ahmedabad, Rajkot. Palakkad. Allahabad. Dimapur, Kohima, Indore, Bhopal, Surat. Cuttack, Dharwad, Ernakulam, Ratlam. Faridabad, Srinagar. Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Gulbarga, Madurai, Guntur. Kannur, Jabalpur, Jalandhar, Kanpur. Mysore," it said.
Dr Reddy's has partnered with major hospitals across India for this purpose, all of whom have successfully administered Sputnik V in India, including ongoing commercial roll-outs to the public, it added.
Earlier today, news agency Reuters reported that the country's full rollout of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine will have to be put on hold until the Russian producer provides equal quantities of its two differing doses.
Dr Reddy's had received about 30 lakh first doses by 1 June and about 360,000 shots of the second by early this month, the firm and the Centre have said.
The government has approved a gap of 21 days between the two doses. The Hyderabad-based pharma company has already launched Sputnik V in May this year after having received emergency use approval from the government in April.
India is expected to be one of the biggest manufacturing hubs of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine. Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russia's sovereign wealth fund, had reached agreements earlier with many pharmaceutical firms for the production of the vaccine in the country.
