Sputnik V has disappeared from the largest private clinics in Moscow

In the largest private clinics it is impossible to get vaccinated with Sputnik V or Sputnik Light. Some clinics vaccinate with the drug Convasel, and many have refused to provide vaccination services against covid-19

In the largest private clinics in Moscow there are no vaccines “Sputnik V” and “Sputnik Light” produced by the NICEM named after. N.F. Gamaleya, RBC found out.

Where did they stop vaccinating against COVID-19?

Information about the opportunity to get vaccinated with Sputnik V and Sputnik Light is posted on the websites of JSC Medicine, Mother and Child, Invitro and EMC. However, none of these clinics have the drugs in stock, and the companies do not yet have information about the resumption of supplies.

Infectious disease DOCTOR and chief physician of Invitro-Sibir Andrei Pozdnyakov noted that today the network does not carry out vaccination with Sputnik V and Sputnik Light, since they have lost their relevance and are already being phased out. In his opinion, this is due to the fact that vaccines created based on the Wuhan strain of CORONAVIRUS are outdated and are no longer effective against new strains. Andrei Pozdnyakov emphasized that immunization against coronavirus will be effective when a new vaccine becomes available.

Now, according to him, the Russian vaccine “Convasel” looks the most promising for vaccination, the action of which is not directed at the S-protein of the coronavirus, but at its more conservative, less mutable proteins.

EMC offered to be vaccinated with Ultrix Quadri, saying that immunization with it protects not only from the flu, but also from the strains of coronavirus currently circulating in RUSSIA. After the publication  , EMC reported that the Convasel vaccine is also available for those wishing to be vaccinated against coronavirus infection. Unlike previous generation vaccines, which were aimed at producing antibodies to the surface S protein, which is most susceptible to mutations, Convasel targets another, the nucleocapsid N protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which remains identical for all variants of the virus. This gives the vaccine a great advantage, allowing it to provide reliable protection against most strains,”  EMC Medical Development  DIRECTOR Evgeny Avetisov told RBC.

He also noted that against the backdrop of the complete lifting of restrictions and a decrease in collective immunity, the risks of contracting influenza increase many times over.

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Infectious diseases doctor and HEAD of the H-Clinic Vaccine Prevention Center Ekaterina Stepanova told RBC that Ultrix Quadri does not provide protection against COVID-19, adding that the drug can only help prevent influenza-COVID co-infection.

Medical Director of Medscan Group of Companies Svetlana Kanevskaya takes a similar position on the effectiveness of the Ultrix Quadri vaccine against COVID-19. The expert noted that the flu vaccine does not have a coronavirus antigen, and therefore will not be able to protect against COVID-19.

The websites of the clinics “Ekaterininskaya”, “Scandinavia”, “Medscan”, “Hadassah”, “Nearmedic” and “Policlinika.ru” contain information that they provide vaccination against COVID-19. Poliklinika.ru reported to RBC that drugs for coronavirus infection are not available. The remaining clinics refused to provide services for vaccination of the population against COVID-19.

The Ekaterininskaya clinic reported that they currently do not vaccinate against COVID-19 and do not plan to resume providing the service.

The Scandinavia clinic noted that COVID-19 vaccines have been out of stock for more than six months, adding that they do not have information when the clinic will receive a new batch.

Nearmedic said that they vaccinated citizens with Sputnik V and Sputnik Light during the COVID-19 epidemic, and then, when the demand for immunization fell, they refused to provide this service. This happened about a year ago.

To get vaccinated against COVID-19, Medscan recommended contacting the company’s partner, the Hadassah clinic. They reported that the clinic currently does not have drugs for COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, some private clinics entered into contracts for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines with the Moscow HEALTH Department, and did not renew them after their expiration. This is what they did, for example, in the IMMA network of clinics, on whose website information is posted about the possibility of getting vaccinated with Sputnik V.

“During the fight against the coronavirus epidemic in Moscow, unprecedented events were organized aimed at preserving the lives of Muscovites, including a campaign to vaccinate Moscow residents during the period of high incidence of coronavirus infection in 2021–2022. The Department of Health entered into agreements with private medical centers. The agreements provided for the free transfer of the COVID-19 vaccine to private clinics for the purpose of immunizing Muscovites without charging the cost of the drug during vaccination,” the department’s press service explained to RBC, adding that after the end of the pandemic, the demand for vaccination decreased, hence the use of private resources clinics for immunization of the population have become irrelevant.

Stepanova, in a conversation with RBC, noted that during the period of the active vaccination campaign, private clinics joined the vaccination efforts using the Sputnik V and Sputnik Light drugs, thus giving people an additional opportunity to get vaccinated. However, when the bulk of the population was vaccinated, the supply of these vaccines to private clinics ended.

The lack of demand for vaccination against COVID-19 was also confirmed to RBC by the chief physician of the Leader-Medicine medical center, Evgeny Timakov, adding that, if desired, vaccination with Sputnik V or Sputnik Light can be obtained free of charge in public medical institutions.

Svetlana Kanevskaya emphasized that today all state clinics are provided with the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that this provision can cover 100% of the population’s need for vaccination. In addition, when ordering, private medical centers are offered large quantities of vaccines with a limited shelf life. “With a significantly lower flow of patients than in city clinics, we will not be able to use them on time. It is for this reason that private centers do not consider it advisable to order the vaccine, although they have such an opportunity,” Kanevskaya noted.

Where they vaccinate, but not with Sputnik

You can get vaccinated against coronavirus infection in a number of the largest private clinics with the drug “Convasel”, the developer of which is the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums of the FMBP. Immunization of the population with this vaccine is now carried out, for example, in the Medsi network of medical clinics. As Ksenia Shekhovtsova, deputy medical director of Medsi Group of Companies, told RBC, currently only this drug is available in the network’s clinics.

H-Clinic temporarily refused to purchase the Convasel vaccine. Stepanova is confident that Convasel cannot completely replace Sputnik V, since effective protection against COVID-19 requires antibodies to the spike protein of the virus, and the drug is focused on a different protein.

Kanevskaya emphasized that she would not compare Sputnik V and Convasel, since the third phase of clinical trials of the FMBP drug began only in March 2023, while clinical trials of Sputnik have been fully completed, the effectiveness of the drug has been proven to be 97.6% . H-Clinic also says that “there is no reliable data yet on the effectiveness of Convasel.”

RBC sent inquiries to the Research Center named after. Gamaleya and the Ministry of Health .

In Russia, mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 has not yet been introduced, but it is recommended for various categories of the population, including military personnel, medical workers, athletes, civil servants and social service workers. Vaccination against COVID-19 is also important for people at increased risk of severe disease.