Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, distributed by pharma giant Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, has not seen many takers in India since its soft launch in May this year, a time when India faced a double whammy of surge in cases and supply shortage of coronavirus jabs. Now, with increase in government vaccination camps, medical experts say that the demand for Sputnik – which is available only in private hospitals – has decreased. In light of this, several private hospitals have cancelled orders of the Russian vaccine.
It is the third vaccine, and the first foreign jab, against the novel coronavirus to have been granted emergency use authorisation in the country after Covishield, developed by Oxford University-AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
India has administered 907,766 Sputnik V doses so far, out of 839.1 million shots given in total.
Meanwhile, even before the end of September, India set new records in the month by administering 18.74 crore doses of vaccines to immunise its population against Covid-19. According to government data, the average per day vaccination in September was 81.48 lakh — four times more than that in May.
Sputnik storage concerns
Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine that is to be taken 21 days apart. While Covishield, the vaccine that is presntly dominating India’s inoculation drive, can be stored in regular refrigerators, Sputnik V needs temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4°F). For this reason, Sputnik V is likely unviable for large-scale roll out like Covishield, or the indigenous Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
“In addition to the product which is at -18 Celsius, today we are in the process of generating additional stability data on the 2 to 8 C temperature range. This data would be available in a few months, after which we will make the necessary amendment request to the regulator and request for the storage condition to be modified to 2 to 8 C,” Deepak Sapra, Dr Reddys Chief Executive Officer, API and Services, said in April 2021.
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Higher price
Another reason for Sputnik V’s low demand is the price. The imported doses of the vaccine are presently priced at Rs 948 plus 5 per cent GST per dose with the possibility of a lower price point when local supply begins. In August 2021, Dr Reddy’s Labs announced that India-manufactured Sputnik V will be made available from September, increasing chances of reduced price since the vaccine doses will be locally made.
Meanwhile, the SII has also made a deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to produce doses of Sputnik V in India, most of which is reportedly to be kept for Indians. “Sputnik V being produced in India is great news for India Russia and rest of the world. A large part of the doses that are being produced in India will be for India. We expect the first batch to be produced by Serum Institute of India (SII) in September,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF said.
‘Light’ to the rescue?
Sputnik Light, another variation of Sputnik V, is also being manufactured in India. It is a single dose vaccine that has not yet received approval in India.
RDIF said in a statement that Sputnik Light “demonstrated 79.4 per cent efficacy” compared to 91.6 per cent for the two-shot Sputnik V, and that it has proven effective against all new strains of coronavirus.
According to news reports, Indian drugmaker Hetero has already manufactured 2 million doses of the single-shot vaccine, for whose approval the country’s drug regulator has sought a separate “immune-bridging clinical trial” in its residents. Light has also been approved in many countries but Indian experts want to know if the single-dose vaccine would work well on Indians. The vaccine which is said to be available in limited quantities is expected to be priced around Rs 750.
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