Sputnik and India’s vaccination drive

India, a country of 1.3 billion, has been the second-worst affected country from coronavirus in terms of total cases. Vaccinating such vast geography is going to be a herculean task any day. The government of India had originally planned to double dose its most vulnerable population of 30 crores by the end of July. The vulnerable population included 27 crores of those age 60 and above, 2 crore frontline workers, and 1 crore Healthline workers. Unfortunately, the government underachieved the target by a huge margin as it could vaccinate only 2% of the population by the end of May. As a result, the government had to revise its strategy and it opened vaccination for everyone above the age of 18 from May 1st.

Covishield price comparison

India’s private sector is procuring Covishield at a level not seen anywhere else in the world. The chart below is representative of Covishield prices across geographies.

Fig. A comparison chart depicting differential prices of Covishield procurement

Roadblocks in Sputnik’s success:

The advent of Sputnik V is being touted as the missing recipe in the preparation of this supper. Dr. Reddy has tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and has received exclusive marketing and distribution rightss of the first 25 crore doses of Sputnik. RDIF has clarified that they plan to produce close to 90 crore vaccines by the end of this year in India. It is unclear what proportion of this 90 crore consignment will be used for vaccination drive within the country. The major manufacturers of vaccines are going to be Gland Pharma, Hetero, Stelis Biopharma, etc.

1. A much bigger challenge awaiting is to develop the cold storage infrastructure (-18 degree Celsius) that needs to be developed for the distribution of Sputnik. Therefore, it is very much expected that it would undergo a phased rollout starting with the major metropolitan cities.
2. Sputnik, the world’s first covid vaccine, is also much awaited as it is one of the three vaccines having an efficacy rate of more than 90%. The efficacy figures for Sputnik V were doubted for quite a long while until it was being validated by Lancet science magazine.
3. The imported doses of Sputnik in India would cost around Rs 1000 per dose which is way higher than the price of Serum’s Covishield. Although the made-in-India vaccines are expected to be having competitive pricing.

Obviously, no one vaccine can fully meet the demand of India, but a portfolio of vaccines is the only way to go forward.