Hyderabad's Rockwell collaborates with Dr Reddy's Lab for Sputnik V rollout

Hyderabad-based Rockwell Industries, a commercial cold chain appliances player, is partnering with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) to enable the storage of Sputnik V vaccine in India through their vaccine freezers. Sputnik V was launched in a limited pilot on May 14 and a commercial launch is expected in June.

Rockwell Industries has got orders for 750 Covid19 vaccine freezers from hospitals and institutions. It is now set to start exports of these freezers to various countries including Japan.

The covid19 vaccines are temperature sensitive, hence require the precise temperature to maintain its potency. “The vaccine freezer plays a very critical role in the safety of vaccines and its potency. Sputnik V vaccine made available in India through Dr. Reddy’s requires a temperature range of minus -18 degrees Celsius, to keep the vaccine stable and potent,” Rockwell said.

It added that Rockwell has researched on developing vaccine freezers according to WHO PQS (World Health Organisation- Performance, Quality and Safety) standard and after three years of R&D efforts, the final product was tested in Denmark at a WHO authorized laboratory. Two different sizes of this freezer were certified.

“The freezer can handle various harsh usage conditions in rural locations too and maintain desired temperature range, thus breaking the vaccine cold chain hurdle,” Rockwell claimed in a statement.

Alok Gupta, MD of Rockwell Industries, said, “Our technology ensures that Sputnik V’s storage management at vaccine centres meets the stringent refrigeration standards set forth by Sputnik V manufacturers.”

Rockwell is working closely with DRL to develop and provide wireless internet of things (IOT) based controllers and data loggers which can give access to real time data of temperature and performance for the vaccine freezers, Prateek Gupta, director, Rockwell said. He added they can make around 1000 machines per day.

The company further added that hospitals like Apollo, Omega, AIG Hospitals are already using these vaccine freezers for vaccine storage. “We are in the process of exporting our Vaccine Freezers to various developed countries including an initial pilot deal with Japan,” Gupta added.

Rockwell has two manufacturing sites in Hyderabad with an annual capacity to make 400,000 units.

According to recent data from the WHO, due to the lack of temperature control or continuous cold chain during vaccine transportation, 5-20 percent of vaccines lose their potency.

 

                                             Rockwell collaborates with DRL for Sputnik V roll out

•  Rockwell has orders for 750 Covid19 freezers from hospitals and institutions already

•  Co says it can make 1000 Covid19 freezers per day

•  Also set to begin exporting to countries including Japan