Regions have increased their independent purchases of COVID-19 vaccines

Over the eight months of this year, the demand for covid-19 vaccines has increased noticeably in a number of regions . This is due to the fact that in the spring the Ministry of HEALTH stopped centralized supplies. At the same time, vaccine production has decreased

In January-August 2023, Russian regions purchased 109 thousand packages of COVID-19 vaccines. This is one and a half times more than for the entire last year - 69.6 thousand packages, RBC calculated based on data from the analytical company Headway Company (specializing in monitoring tender purchases in the pharmaceutical industry). In monetary terms, the volume of purchases increased 5.5 times - from 56.7 million to 313.3 million rubles.

How did they think?

Headway Company, at the request of RBC, provided information about all auctions for the supply of CORONAVIRUS vaccines that were held through the government procurement portal in 2020–2023. This resource is the only open source of data on the number and amount of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by state budgetary institutions. At the same time, Headway Company emphasized that not the entire volume of vaccines is purchased through the government procurement portal - the bulk of them are centrally purchased by the Ministry of Health, but this data is closed.

The regions have noticeably increased their independent purchases of coronavirus vaccines after the Ministry of Health stopped supplying them centrally in the spring of this year. In 2023, 32 regions purchased the vaccine, many of which did not purchase it at all last year. The largest purchase was made by the Vologda region - 24.1 thousand packages. Another 20.1 thousand and 20 thousand packages were purchased by St. Petersburg and the Nizhny Novgorod regionrespectively, 7 thousand packages - Volgograd region, 6.9 thousand and 6.8 thousand packages - Tver and Irkutsk regions. In terms of the amount of purchases in monetary terms, the Nizhny Novgorod region took first place, paying 111.1 million rubles for supplies. In second and third places are St. Petersburg (44.2 million rubles) and the Volgograd region (37.9 million rubles). Also among the regions that paid more than others for vaccine supplies were the Lipetsk region (22.5 million rubles), Moscow (14.5 million rubles) and the Irkutsk region (almost 14 million rubles).

The procurement structure has also changed. If last year almost the entire volume was accounted for by Sputnik Light used for revaccination (48.1 thousand packages), now the regions purchase mainly Convasel, a vaccine developed by the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums of the FMBA of RUSSIA and registered in March 2022. The volume of purchases of this drug for January-August 2023 amounted to 84.3 thousand packages, “Sputnik Light” - 24.3 thousand. “Sputnik V” was not purchased by the regions at all this year; in 2022, they independently purchased 4.1 thousand .packages.

How the mechanism for purchasing vaccines has changed

Regions have previously purchased coronavirus vaccines on their own, but in much smaller quantities. The government of the Vologda region explained to RBC that from 2020 to 2023, vaccines against COVID-19 were supplied to the region centrally through the distribution of the federal Ministry of Health. But on March 28 of this year, at a meeting of the operational headquarters to prevent the importation and spread of a new coronavirus infection in Russia, it was stated that since vaccination is carried out according to epidemic indications, the regions must purchase the necessary drugs independently at their own expense. After this, regions began to suspend immunization of the population against COVID-19 or carry it out for a fee, explaining their decision by the stable epidemiological situation, Vedomosti previously reported.

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The Vologda region actually purchased 24.1 thousand doses of coronavirus vaccines for the 2023/24 epidemiological season, the regional government clarified. The region calculated the vaccine needs taking into account the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, which involve vaccinating adult citizens who have not been sick and have not been vaccinated before, the press service added.

The Ministry of Health of the Irkutsk Region also told RBC that starting this year, the Ministry of Health no longer carries out centralized deliveries to the region - they stopped in May. From 2021 to April 2023, 1.9 million vaccines were received in the Irkutsk region. The regional Ministry of Health did not provide any other details about vaccine purchases in 2023.

The administrations of St. Petersburg and the Volgograd region, as well as the governments of the Nizhny Novgorod and Tver regions, did not respond to RBC’s requests at the time of publication. The health authorities of these regions did the same.

RBC sent a request to the Russian Ministry of Health.

What is the situation with the incidence of COVID-19

With the onset of autumn, the incidence of coronavirus infection began to rise again. According to the stopcoronavirus.rf portal, during the week from September 4 to 10, 7.7 thousand new cases of COVID-19 infection were detected in Russia - a 47% increase compared to the previous week. The latest available statistics from September 18 to 24 show an increase in incidence by 25% per week - up to 14 thousand cases. Among the regions where the most new cases of infection were identified, the leaders were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara and Sverdlovsk regions, as well as the Perm Territory.

Against the backdrop of a seasonal increase in the incidence of ARVI, influenza and covid, the mask regime was temporarily returned to the Government House in mid-September, and they also planned to limit personal contacts between employees and reduce the number of business trips of Cabinet members. However, Rospotrebnadzor called the increase in incidence predictable and reassured that it is “not planned to introduce large-scale restrictive measures, such as, for example, a mask regime, unless there are serious reasons for this.”

Will there be enough vaccines?

The Vologda and Irkutsk regions noted that no problems arose during the procurement of coronavirus vaccines and they did not encounter any shortage of vaccines in the regions. However, vaccine production has clearly declined over the past year.

Sputnik V, which in previous years was widely used for vaccination , was last put into circulation in September 2022 - the batch was released by the developer of the drug, the Center named after. N.F. Gamaleya, follows from data from Roszdravnadzor. Over the entire last year, 25 batches of it were released (for comparison: in 2021 there were more than 600). Six batches of Sputnik Light went into circulation this year, five last year, and 85 batches in 2021. The volumes of the batches are not disclosed.

In total, nine vaccines against COVID-19 are currently registered in Russia, according to stopcoronavirus.rf. In addition to Sputnik V and Sputnik Light, these are the nasal Sputnik V, Sputnik M for teenagers, the vaccine from the Center named after. Chumakov “Kovivak”, which last went into circulation in April last year, as well as two “Epivaccorona” vaccines from the “Vector” center. Among the relatively new ones are the drug Salnavak, registered in December 2022 by Generium, as well as Convasel.

There will be no problems with the availability of the vaccine in the event of a further increase in the incidence and the need to conduct a vaccination campaign again, says Sergei Shulyak, CEO of DSM Group. He believes that the country has large remnants of previously released vaccines, and recalls that in October last year the Ministry of Health extended the shelf life of Sputnik V from six months to 18 months. The expert also believes that there will be no problems with the launch of production, since the technology was fine-tuned at the end of 2020 - beginning of 2021. In September of this year, the Center named after. N.F. Gamaleyi, as follows from the government procurement portal, placed a new order for the production of Sputnik V in the amount of 4 million doses, the contract executor is not disclosed.

The company Biocad, which has been producing Sputnik V on a regular basis for about a year since the fall of 2020, clarified to RBC that since November 2021, orders for supplies of the drug stopped coming and, accordingly, the vaccine was no longer produced. This year, the company also did not receive requests containing all the necessary information, including nomenclature, volumes and production dates, Biocad noted. They emphasized that upon receipt they would be ready to consider it. Other vaccine manufacturers did not respond to RBC's requests.