PUNE: The chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Dr N K Arora, told TOI that the Russian vaccine Sputnik V might not be able to enter the government inoculation sites till its supply increased substantially.
Explaining the reason behind the delay in its supply, Arora said, “Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine uses two different adenoviruses as the viral vectors. The first shot contains adenovirus 26 (Ad26) as the viral vector, while the second contains adenovirus 5 (Ad5). The manufacturing of the second dose is a slow process, because the Ad5 virus grows very slowly. Since the second dose takes time to manufacture, the supplies have been delayed. First doses would be available only when supplies of the second shot are ramped up.”
So far, only a few lakh doses of the vaccine have been available for use in India. Several private hospitals have run out of the vaccine’s first dose, a source in one of the facilities in Pune said on Wednesday.
Dr Arora said some viruses grow very slowly in controlled conditions, including adenovirus 5. “The virus has been used in the past for candidate vaccines and has posed the same issue. Sputnik V’s availability so far in India is not high enough to incorporate the vaccine in the government’s free vaccination programme. Only when the availability increases, a system, along with cold storage of the vaccine, can be worked out to introduce it in government centres. The vaccine requires appropriate cold chain storage — till up to half-an-hour before it is administered,” he said.
The vaccine has to be stored at -18°C for stability and potency. Apart from Russia, only India was manufacturing the vaccine currently, he said.
Dr Arora said the manufacturing process of the vaccine had begun in India, but the issues in ramping up the second dose production was being experienced here as well as in Russia. “Dr Reddy’s, which launched Sputnik V on a pilot basis in India, is trying to resolve the issue over the last two-three months now and we are given to understand that there would soon be a headway.”
In an email response to TOI, a spokesperson from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited said, “We are working closely with our partners in India for manufacturing readiness. We expect that locally manufactured doses are likely to be available from the September-October period. We have received 31.5 lakh doses of component 1 and 4.5 lakh doses of component 2 of the Sputnik V vaccine in India so far. We are working closely with the RDIF (Russian Direct Investment Fund) to ramp up supplies.”
People who want the first dose of Sputnik V have been complaining of delay in getting the vaccine shot. A representative of a private hospital that was earlier administering the vaccine said the facility had stopped giving the first doses because it had run out of stock.
“We still have the second doses of Sputnik, which had come with the first lot we had received. The second shots would have to be used for those who are due,” the representative said.
