The Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy's Laboratories pharmaceutical company said on Monday that it had launched a pilot vaccination program with Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which will be administered in the Apollo Hospitals across India
NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th May, 2021) The Hyderabad-based Dr. Reddy's Laboratories pharmaceutical company said on Monday that it had launched a pilot vaccination program with Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, which will be administered in the Apollo Hospitals across India.
Hyderabad was the first to start administering the Russian vaccine. The city of Visakhapatnam will join the pilot campaign on Tuesday. The Sputnik V vaccine will be supplied by Dr. Reddy's from the first batch of 150,000 doses imported for the soft launch. After Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam, the program will be extended to Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, and Pune.
"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," Deepak Sapra, the global head of Customs Pharma Service of Dr. Reddy Laboratories, said in a statement.
On Sunday, India received the second batch of the Russian vaccine. The country is expected to start producing up to 850 million doses of Sputnik V per year.
The first Sputnik V delivery arrived in Hyderabad on May 1. India has also approved the use of its own vaccine Covaxin and the local version of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, Covishield.
