As it became known to Vedomosti, the company will be the only one who will be able to supply vaccines to the state for further vaccination of Russians, primarily from the risk group. The draft resolution was developed by the Ministry of Health, now it has been sent for approval to the relevant departments. As stated in the document, this "company has all the necessary capabilities to meet the needs of the customer in full".
The company was established in May this year. It is 100% owned by Digital Assets, which, in turn, are owned by Sberbank.
Alexey Repik's R-Pharm and Rostec's Natsimbio also fought for the right to supply the coronavirus vaccine. As a result, the race for the right to supply vaccines to the state was won by a company that does not even have its own production and logistics facilities, Nikolay Bespalov, Development Director of RNC Pharma, commented to the publication. Now the company will have to attract third-party carriers who will ensure the transportation and storage of vaccines in compliance with the required temperature regime.
At the same time, as the newspaper notes, initially the subsidiary of Sberbank had only to look for sites where the first Russian vaccine against COVID-19, developed by the Gamaleya Research Center, could be produced, as well as to look for customers abroad interested in buying the Russian drug. However, now the company has also received the right to supply the Russian vaccine to the regions. A source familiar with the situation claims that the company has already found contractors who will deliver the vaccine to the regions, and has also begun to build a distribution center near Moscow.
At the same time, the annual need for vaccination of Russians is at least 70 million doses of vaccines. The cost of the contract is estimated at about 50 billion rubles, provided that the vaccine will not be more than a thousand rubles. Sergey Shulyak, general director of the DSM Group analytical company, noted that the distributor's approximate markup is about 15%, which means that the company will be able to earn about 7.5 billion rubles annually on this contract. The advantage of any government order is that the company has a guaranteed order and a sales market, summed up Shulyak.