A huge consignment of 30 lakh (3 million) doses of Russian Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V landed at the Hyderabad airport on a chartered freighter RU-9450 in the wee hours of Tuesday.

Weighing 56.5 MT, this is the biggest tranche of Sputnik V vaccines to arrive here, and the consignment includes substances for filling and packaging.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tweeted: “Hyderabad Customs expeditiously cleared the 3rd and the largest shipment of 56.6 MT of Sputnik Vaccines.”

While Dr Reddy’s Labs, which has an exclusive tie-up for supplies with RIDF, is yet to comment on the development, Sputnik V tweeted: “A new batch of #SputnikV vaccine arrived in India to help the country fight #COVID19 pandemic. More cities in #India wil be joining Sputnik V vaccination campaign.”

Apollo Group

Currently, the Apollo Group of Hospitals has been administering Sputnik V, and plans to offer across its hospitals in the second week of June.

In the first shipment by RIDF, which landed at Hyderabad on May 1, 1.5 lakh doses were received and this was followed by a second shipment of 60,000 doses on May 16.

Following this, Dr Reddy’s had announced a soft launch of the vaccine on May 14 and outlined plans for a bigger rollout by mid-June. RIDF has tied up with Dr Reddy’s for the distribution of 250 million doses in India and has signed agreements with six pharma companies to manufacture up to 850 million doses a year. Dr Reddy’s had hinted that the 18 million doses would be imported within two months.

CDL approval

Meanwhile, the first batch of India-made Sputnik V has secured nod from the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) in Kasauli. Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs, which has a tie-up for the manufacture of 100 million vaccines, is one of the six pharma companies that has tied up for manufacture of Sputnik V in India. Other Sputnik manufacturers are also expected to go through the approval process after first batch of vaccines are made in India.

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) said the processing of the shipment was completed in less than 90 minutes, after which it was dispatched to Dr Reddy’s Labs.

GHAC has been working closely with experts from the vaccine supply chain team, Customs officials and other stakeholders to ensure that the necessary infrastructure and handling processes are fully in place for the smooth handling of vaccine shipments. Sputnik V vaccine requires storage at -20 degrees Celsius.

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