Dr Reddy's on July 12 said it hasn't put on hold the ongoing soft commercial rollout of Sptunik V COVID-19 vaccine.
"Neither the ongoing soft commercial launch nor work towards its ramp-up in India have been put on hold," the company said in a statement.
Dr Reddy's will strengthen the commercial roll-out of Sputnik V in the coming weeks.
Dr Reddy's launched Sputnik V vaccine on a pilot basis in India on May 14, 2021.
However, on June 29, Dr Reddy's said there was a 'slight' delay in the commercial rollout of Sputnik V vaccine. The delay is "due to dependency on imported consignments, and quality testing in India", the company said.
The Hyderabad-based drug maker didn't specify the commercial launch date of the Russian vaccine, one of the three cleared for emergency use in India.
Around three million doses of Sputnik have arrived in India and the consignment of the second dose is likely to land by the end of June.
Meanwhile, hospitals have complained about lack of visibility on the supplies of Sputnik V from Dr Reddy's.
The Indian government currently cut its estimates of Sputnik V availability to 100 million doses by December, compared with an earlier projection of about 156 million doses. The procurement is part of a plan to vaccinate all of India’s adult population against COVID-19 by December 31.
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which holds the sole distribution rights for the first 250 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine in India, as per its agreement with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, had indicated earlier that it would import about 36 million doses of Sputnik V from Russia and was expecting the commercial rollout by July.
Please read here on why Sputnik V vaccine rollout may not hit full capacity until August-September.