B Medical to help DRL in Sputnik V vax rollout

New Delhi: Luxembourg-based medical refrigeration devices firm B Medical Systems has said it has joined hands with Dr Reddy's Laboratories for providing reliable cold chain solutions for the pan-India rollout of Sputnik V vaccine.

Sputnik V, an adenovirus viral vector vaccine, needs specialised storage and is required to be kept at a temperature of -18°C or below, necessitating the need for a more stringent vaccine cold chain, it added.

Under the collaboration, the company will install several hundreds of vaccine freezers across the country for the national rollout of Sputnik V vaccines, B Medical Systems said in a statement.

B Medical Systems will offer its vaccine freezers that provide a storage temperature as low as -25°C.These units were dispatched by air cargo from Luxembourg to meet the immediate requirement.

As a part of the collaboration, B Medical Systems' freezers will be placed across all major hospital chains in the country this week, it added. "Sputnik V vaccine is highly thermosensitive and B Medical Systems is honoured to be partnering with Dr Reddy's in the roll-out of Sputnik V vaccines. We have worked closely with Dr Reddy's to put in place a highly reliable vaccine cold chain infrastructure for this," B Medical Systems India CEO Jesal Doshi said.

The company's technology ensures that vaccines stored inside are not exposed to any temperature excursions and are maintained at their fullest efficacy, he added. "Our remote monitoring solutions ensure that there is end-to-end traceability of the storage conditions," Doshi said.

Dr Reddy's had made a limited pilot soft launch in May and will start the full-scale vaccine rollout in the coming days, the statement said. B Medical Systems recently started its India operations and is ramping up its production to meet the significant demand for its cold chain products including vaccine refrigerators and vaccine transport boxes, it added.