Covid-19: Dr Reddy’s ties up with Rockwell for vaccine freezers to store Sputnik V

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has tied up with commercial cold chain appliance manufacturer Rockwell Industries for freezers to store Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines.

The vaccine requires a temperature of -18 degrees celsius to keep the jab stable and potent. Dr Reddy’s has been working on stabilising it at storage temperature between 2 and 8 degrees celsius.

While a commercial launch is due later this month, Dr Reddy’s has done a soft launch of the Sputnik V vaccine in the country on May 14. Dr Reddy’s plans to roll out the Sputnik V vaccine across India.

Ashok Gupta, managing director, Rockwell Industries, said their technology ensured that Sputnik V’s storage management at vaccine centres meets the stringent refrigeration standards set forth by Sputnik V manufacturers.

Covid-19 vaccines are temperature sensitive and require the precise temperature to maintain its potency, he said.

Rockwell has developed the vaccine freezers as per the WHO performance, quality and safety standards, and has tested it at a WHO authorised test laboratory at Denmark. Two different sizes of vaccine freezers have been certified by the laboratory. These freezers can handle various harsh usage conditions in rural locations too and maintain desired temperature range overcoming hurdles in the vaccine cold chain.

Rockwell and Dr Reddy’s are working on a wireless IoT based controllers and data loggers, which could give access to real-time data of temperature and performance of the freezers across location in the country.

Rockwell has closed deals for over 750 Covid-19 vaccine freezers till now with various hospitals and institutions. Hospitals such as AIG Hospitals, Apollo, Omega and Care Hospitals have already started using the Rockwell’s vaccine freezers. The company is also in the process of exporting these vaccine freezers to developed countries including an initial pilot deal with Japan.

The company can manufacture about 1,000 machines per day. Rockwell has two manufacturing facilities in Hyderabad with an annual production capacity of 4,00,000 units.