Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories said on Wednesday that the registration for Sputnik V on the CoWin portal will open for public with the commercial release of the vaccine, for which the company is gearing up. Once the limited pilot — rolled out from Hyderabad a month ago and extended to more cities subsequently including the four metros and Bengaluru — is completed, the commercial release will be announced, the pharma major said.
“The pilot phase is in its final leg as we gear up to ensure a smooth commercial launch,” DRL said. More cities are also to be covered under this phase, in the next few days, the pharma major said in a release, without mentioning the duration of the pilot programme.
A limited pilot, rolled out last month and now in its final leg across cities, has helped test cold storage arrangements, CoWIN integration, track-and-trace and other logistical arrangements.
Adequate cold chain units are being deployed and last-mile cold chain arrangement is being validated at every partner hospital to ensure seamless storage and handling. Necessary supply arrangements are being executed to ensure availability of both dose components in the right quantity and at the right time at partner hospitals. The third vaccine against COVID-19 to receive emergency use authorisation in India, Sputnik V doses, unlike the other two vaccines Covaxin and Covishield, are different, as two different types of adenovirus vectors (rAd26 and rAd5) are used for the two shots.
