HomeNewsBusinessCompaniesDr Reddy's says it plans to vaccinate 125 million people with Sputnik V vaccine in next 8-12 months

Dr Reddy's says it plans to vaccinate 125 million people with Sputnik V vaccine in next 8-12 months

"We have a supply committment of 36 million doses from RDIF in next two months," said M V Ramana, Executive Vice President and Head of the Branded Formulations at Dr. Reddy's.

May 14, 2021 / 15:48 IST
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Representative image of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine being imported by Dr. Reddy's Laboratory for distribution in India
Representative image of the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine being imported by Dr. Reddy's Laboratory for distribution in India

Drug maker Dr Reddy's on May 14 said it plans to vaccinate 125 million people in the next 8-12 months with Sputnik vaccine. The company is in discussions with at least 2 states.

About 15-20 percent of the initial supplies would be from imported from Russia.

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"We have a supply committment of 36 million doses from RDIF in next two months," said M V Ramana, Executive Vice President and Head of the Branded Formulations at Dr. Reddy's.

The company said it expects commercial shipments from the middle of June.

COVID-19 Vaccine
Frequently Asked Questions

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.
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