Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept. 29: Some private hospitals have cancelled orders for Russia’s Sputnik V as they struggle to sell these shots amid growing quantities of free doses of other vaccinations supplied by the government
According to some industry officials, low demand and extreme cold storage conditions that are required, have prompted at least three major hospitals to cancel orders for Sputnik V, which is exclusively available on the private market at the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
Jitendra Oswal, a senior medical official at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in the western city of Pune said, “With storage and everything, we have cancelled our order for 2,500 doses. Demand is also not great. There is a class of people, barely 1%, that wanted to go for Sputnik. For the rest, anything would do”.
According to Health Ministry data, private hospitals only provided approximately 6% of all vaccinations administered in India from May to last week, despite the government allowing them to purchase up to a quarter of domestic supply.
Low domestic uptake could mean higher exports instead, step backers are already pushing for. India is a major production centre for Sputnik V, with a planned capacity of about 850 million shots per year. Low domestic uptake could mean higher exports instead. A request for comment from the health ministry was not immediately returned.
Only 943,000 doses of Sputnik V have been provided by hospitals, a fraction of the national total of more than 876 million, since its June introduction by Indian distributor Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is the mainstay of India’s vaccination campaign, as it can be stored in standard refrigerators, unlike Sputnik V, which requires temperatures of -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4 degrees Fahrenheit), which is impossible to achieve in most of India.
On the private market, the vaccine is up to 47 percent more expensive than AstraZeneca.
