Dr Reddy’s ties up with Rockwell for 500 freezers to store Sputnik V vaccine

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has entered into a strategic partnership with Hyderabad-based Rockwell Industries, specialising in commercial cold chain appliance manufacturing, to provide vaccine freezers for storing Sputnik V, the Russian-made Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine, across India.

The deal has been closed to supply at least 750 Covid-19 vaccine freezers to various hospitals and institutions across the country; 500 of these being specifically for Sputnik V.

Dr Reddy’s earlier tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund that markets Sputnik V globally, to distribute first 250 million doses of the vaccine.

On May 14, Dr Reddy’s announced a limited pilot soft launch of the Sputnik V vaccine in India, ahead of the commercial launch later in June to test, among other things, cold chain facilities for storage.

The freezer plays a critical role in the safety of vaccine and its potency. Sputnik V vaccine requires a temperature of -18°C to remain stable and potent.

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According to Rockwell, it develops freezers as per the WHO PQS (World Health Organisation - Performance, Quality and Safety) standard, and those can handle various harsh usage conditions, in rural locations too, and maintain desired temperature range, thus breaking the vaccine cold chain hurdle.

“This is a huge endorsement for our Covid-19 vaccine freezer. Our technology ensures that Sputnik V’s storage management at vaccine centres meets the stringent refrigeration standards set forth by Sputnik V manufacturers,” said Ashok Gupta, managing director, Rockwell Industries Ltd.

In addition, Rockwell will provide end-to-end logistics and after sales service support for the vaccine freezers across India

“Rockwell is working closely with Dr. Reddy’s to develop & provide wireless IOT based controllers and data loggers which can give access to real time data of temperature and performance for the Vaccine Freezers assuring the vaccine storage conditions in each location across the country” said Prateek Gupta, director Rockwell Industries Ltd.

Many hospitals, such as AIG Hospitals, Apollo, Omega and Care Hospitals, are already using these vaccine freezers for storage and many more hospitals and institutions are likely to do so in coming weeks as the Sputnik V vaccine is launched commercially in India.

“We have a capacity to manufacture about 1,000 machines per day. We are in the process of exporting our Vaccine Freezers to various developed countries including an initial pilot deal with Japan,” added Prateek.