<p>Dr. Reddy's Laboratories is in talks with partners to export domestically made doses of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik, after New Delhi recently approved shipments of other shots, the firm said on Monday.</p>.<p>As the main Indian distributor of Sputnik, sold only on the private market, Dr. Reddy's has struggled to compete with vaccines that the government distributes free.</p>.<p>It makes up barely 1 million of a national total of 1.2 billion administered doses, while the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India accounts for nearly 90% of that figure, followed by home-grown Covaxin.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/sputnik-light-vaccine-to-be-launched-in-india-by-december-1054172.html" target="_blank">Sputnik Light vaccine to be launched in India by December</a></strong></p>.<p>Now Dr Reddy's is focusing on the single-dose Sputnik Light, as a booster shot or standalone, instead of the two-dose Sputnik V, a spokesperson said.</p>.<p>"We are also in discussion with our partners to take Sputnik to other countries, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region and in certain countries of Africa, Latin America and Central America," the spokesperson added in an email.</p>.<p>Last month India resumed exports of Covid-19 vaccines for the first time since it banned shipments in April in a bid to focus on inoculating its own population after infections rocketed.</p>.<p>Dr. Reddy's said it failed to capitalise on India's vaccine demand in the middle of the year because supplies of the second dose of Sputnik V fell short.</p>.<p>Unlike most vaccines, its two doses are different and Indian drugmakers have found it difficult to produce the second one.</p>.<p>"The yields were low, they were not reproducible," the firm's co-chairman, G V Prasad, said in a recent interview. "Usual biological processes – they don't usually behave predictably."</p>.<p>Prasad said the company was trying to see if it could make the second Sputnik V dose commercially, in what would be its first vaccine production in more than two decades.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>
<p>Dr. Reddy's Laboratories is in talks with partners to export domestically made doses of Russia's Covid-19 vaccine, Sputnik, after New Delhi recently approved shipments of other shots, the firm said on Monday.</p>.<p>As the main Indian distributor of Sputnik, sold only on the private market, Dr. Reddy's has struggled to compete with vaccines that the government distributes free.</p>.<p>It makes up barely 1 million of a national total of 1.2 billion administered doses, while the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India accounts for nearly 90% of that figure, followed by home-grown Covaxin.</p>.<p><strong>Read | <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/sputnik-light-vaccine-to-be-launched-in-india-by-december-1054172.html" target="_blank">Sputnik Light vaccine to be launched in India by December</a></strong></p>.<p>Now Dr Reddy's is focusing on the single-dose Sputnik Light, as a booster shot or standalone, instead of the two-dose Sputnik V, a spokesperson said.</p>.<p>"We are also in discussion with our partners to take Sputnik to other countries, mostly in the Asia-Pacific region and in certain countries of Africa, Latin America and Central America," the spokesperson added in an email.</p>.<p>Last month India resumed exports of Covid-19 vaccines for the first time since it banned shipments in April in a bid to focus on inoculating its own population after infections rocketed.</p>.<p>Dr. Reddy's said it failed to capitalise on India's vaccine demand in the middle of the year because supplies of the second dose of Sputnik V fell short.</p>.<p>Unlike most vaccines, its two doses are different and Indian drugmakers have found it difficult to produce the second one.</p>.<p>"The yields were low, they were not reproducible," the firm's co-chairman, G V Prasad, said in a recent interview. "Usual biological processes – they don't usually behave predictably."</p>.<p>Prasad said the company was trying to see if it could make the second Sputnik V dose commercially, in what would be its first vaccine production in more than two decades.</p>.<p><strong>Watch latest videos by DH here:</strong></p>