Russia's Sputnik V Orders Cancelled By Indian Hospitals
NDTV
Coronavirus Vaccine: Low demand and extremely cold storage temperatures needed for the Russian COVID-19 vaccine have caused three big hospitals to cancel Sputnik V orders.
Some of India's private hospitals have cancelled orders for Russia's Sputnik V vaccine as they struggle to sell COVID-19 shots amid surging supplies of free doses of other vaccines offered by the government.
Some industry officials said low demand and the extremely cold storage temperatures required have spurred at least three big hospitals to cancel orders for Sputnik V, which is sold only on the private market in the world's biggest producer of vaccines.
"With storage and everything, we have cancelled our order for 2,500 doses," said Jitendra Oswal, a senior medical official at Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College and Hospital in the western city of Pune. "Demand is also not great. There is a class of people, barely 1%, that wanted to go for Sputnik. For the rest, anything would do."
From May until last week, private hospitals doled out just about 6% of all vaccines administered in India, although the government had freed them to buy up to a quarter of domestic output, Health Ministry data shows.
