Long queues have been lining up in front of vaccination centers in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas for weeks. Locals spend hours there to get a second dose of Sputnik V, but often go home without a shot.
Similar problems with the supply of the Russian drug in the past few months have been in other Latin American countries, for example, in Bolivia and Argentina. And Guatemala even asked Russia to return the money for the undelivered vaccine, after which two shipments of the drug were urgently sent to the country.
Waiting for the second dose of Sputnik V
The official Twitter account of the Russian vaccine constantly contains information about new deliveries. For example, on Monday, October 18, footage of boxes labeled “Sputnik V – First Registered COVID-19 Vaccine” was published at the Caracas airport. In them, as confirmed by DW in the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which is promoting the drug abroad, 430 thousand doses of the second component of the vaccine.
Namely, the second component is so eagerly awaited by the Venezuelans. Among them is 88-year-old Esperita Garcia de Perez. She received her first injection of Sputnik V back in May, and while she was waiting for the second dose, she managed to become infected with the coronavirus.
“I spent many months anxiously waiting for the second dose of the vaccine,” the woman told the AP news agency. Esperita Garcia adds that the unknown is painful for her. “It doesn’t matter that the vaccine is delayed, it is important that there is confidence and hope that it will appear,” she says.
Information about how many doses of Sputnik V received Venezuela and which vaccination centers they received does not reach the residents of the country, infectious disease specialist Manuel Enrique Figuera told DW in an interview. “Even I, being the current president of the Venezuelan Society of Infectious Diseases, do not have this information,” he added.
Eserita Garcia
“Therefore, people, hearing about the arrival of a new batch of vaccine, spend several hours in queues. And in the end they do not receive a dose of the vaccine due to the fact that there is no adequate information that they could be guided by,” said Figuera.
Russia delivered only 8% of the promised doses
According to the British analytical company Airfinity, which it provided to DW, Russia has signed contracts for the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine with 62 countries for about one billion doses. But in reality, only 76 million doses of the drug were exported. This is less than 8% of what was promised.
The biggest vaccine shortage is in Iran. In April, the country’s government signed an agreement with RDIF to supply 60 million doses of Sputnik V in 2021. So far, according to data from Airfinity, the country has received only 1.7 million. Turkey delivered 400 thousand out of the ordered 50 million, and Uzbekistan – 460 thousand out of 35 million.
When asked to comment on the situation with the supply of Sputnik V vaccine, RDIF responded that they “fully comply with the contracts for the supply of Sputnik V vaccine, including the second component of the vaccine.” The company did not deny that there were delays in deliveries, but assured that “at this stage they have been completely eliminated due to the growth of vaccine production both in the Russian Federation and abroad.”
Lack of production capacity
Vasily Vlasov, an epidemiologist and professor at the Higher School of Economics, notes that it is very difficult to obtain complete information about what is being supplied and where. He notes that the assessment of supply processes should be guided by information from vaccine recipients. “It is the vaccine recipients who say that they did not receive something and generally return our money, who are reliable sources of information for us,” he added.
Supplies of Russian vaccine abroad
The reason for the delay in deliveries may be a lack of production capacity, because we are talking about high-tech production. “A lot of components are needed to make a vaccine, and each of them can be a problem,” says Vlasov, “starting even with glass for ampoules, which is a scarce material on the Russian market.” The pharmaceutical industry and its problems, he emphasizes, are very hidden from outside sight.
Sergei Zhavoronkov, a senior researcher at the Gaidar Institute, also suggests that Russian vaccine manufacturers are facing capacity shortages. In the Russian regions, there were previously also interruptions in the supply of vaccines, he notes, which is why in the Khabarovsk Territory and Udmurtia, for example, the authorities were even forced to suspend vaccination.
Not a quality champion, but a more affordable product
Back in August last year, Russia was the first in the world to develop a vaccine against coronavirus and achieved its registration in 70 countries. The massive export of vaccines abroad was to become “the glory of Russian science and pharmaceuticals,” says Vlasov. “But it doesn’t look very nice so far,” he adds, referring to the supply delays.
Sputnik V is still not approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) or the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Moscow believes that this is behind political motives, but representatives of the WHO and EMA insist that the vaccine manufacturer has not yet provided all the necessary documents. On October 21, WHO resumed the vaccine approval process.
Sputnik V vaccination in Venezuela
“The success of the Russian vaccine can be judged when it is applied in Europe, the United States or Japan,” Zhavoronkov said. “In the meantime, with the exception of Hungary, the Russian vaccine is mainly used in third world countries,” he notes.
Vlasov also believes that the countries that registered and purchased Sputnik V did so mostly by force, because other more trustworthy manufacturers could not guarantee supplies in the required volumes: more affordable product “.
However, now that countries are facing delays in the supply of Sputnik V, many have begun to switch to vaccinations with other drugs. Doctors in Venezuela, for example, advise those who did not wait for the second Sputnik V vaccination to be vaccinated with the Chinese drug Sinovac.
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