Manipal Hospitals expands its vaccine portfolio with Sputnik V pilot

The hospital chain is all set to roll out Sputnik V vaccine pilot along with Covishield and Covaxin

Manipal Hospitals has collaborated with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to add the Sputnik V vaccine pilot in its existing vaccine portfolio that comprises Covishield and Covaxin. The roll out of the Sputnik V vaccine by Manipal Hospitals in Bengaluru is part of the limited pilot soft launch initiated by Dr Reddy’s in Hyderabad last month, a statement from the hospital has said.

Speaking about the new development, Karthik Rajagopal, COO, Manipal Health Enterprises, said, “We are delighted to state that Manipal Hospitals is well-prepared to roll out the Sputnik V vaccine pilot. The hospital has worked closely with Dr Reddy’s to create the state-of-the-art infrastructure to maintain Sputnik V vaccine. The hospital chain has successfully conducted vaccination drives with Covishield and Covaxin across the country till date and will continue the efforts along with the new addition of Sputnik V. We are expecting the vaccine to be available for the public soon in the latter half of the month.”

According to the statement, addressing the need of the hour, especially with the first batch of the Sputnik V vaccine directly transported from Russia, Manipal Hospitals has invested in creating a robust cold chain storage infrastructure as the vaccine needs to be stored in minus 18⁰ centigrade. Manipal Hospitals and Dr Reddy’s took extensive efforts to ensure stringent cold chain maintenance as per the required guidelines for the vaccine. The cold chain storage even has a real-time logger which records the temperature every second.

Speaking about the development, MV Ramana, CEO – Branded Markets (India & Emerging Markets), Dr Reddy’s, said, “We are pleased to collaborate with Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru as we scale up our soft pilot launch of the Sputnik V vaccine in India and extend it to more cities ahead of the commercial launch later in June. In the upcoming months, we hope to inoculate as many Indians as possible.”