India is set to receive Sputnik V vaccines from Russia over the next three months. The vaccines will be available in tranches of 6 million, 10 million and 20 million doses (for 3 million, 5 million and 10 million individuals) in May, June and July, the Government of India told the Supreme Court recently.

The Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine could become part of the national vaccination programme after July when the manufacturing of adequate doses begins in India.

The Russian-made vaccine is currently available only in the private sector and requires a storage temperature of -18 to -20 degrees Celsius, which is significantly less than the 2-8 degrees Celsius required for the two vaccines currently in the national programme — Covishield and Covaxin.

However, experts associated with the programme noted that the storage temperature should not be a deterrent.

“Currently there are some 1.5-2 lakh Sputnik vaccines that have been imported into the country, so they will mostly be available in the private sector. But it might come into the national programme post-July when the country is expecting massive manufacturing to start happening within the country. Then they can be given at all ages,” said Dr N.K. Arora, chairman of the Covid-19 working group of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation and director of the INCLEN Trust.

“The vaccine needs to be stored at a temperature of -18 to -20 degrees but that is not a cause of concern because that is also the temperature at which the polio vaccine is stored. So the programme is geared. The only question is when it becomes available in sufficient doses,” Dr Arora

The recent decision to extend the gap between two doses of Covisheld to 12-16 weeks was based on the recommendation of the working group headed by Arora.

Meanwhile, the CoWIN platform has already started to reflect Sputnik as a vaccine option.

These vaccines will be available in the “other than GoI” vaccine procurement channel which means that states or private hospitals can procure them but the Government of India will not.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is importing Sputnik V into India, recently announced a tie-up with Apollo Hospitals for the administration of the vaccine. Some state governments are also reaching out for Sputnik because of the massive supply constraints of both Covaxin and Covishield.

The domestic production of the Russian-made vaccine is expected to touch 1.2 crore doses per month by July 2021.

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