Attendant of billions: who literally benefits from vaccination

Without denying the benefits of vaccines, we suggest looking at the vaccination campaign from the other side, calculating the income of manufacturers and thus answering the question of who benefits from it.

Irina Mishina

First, some statistics. Three main vaccines against COVID-19 have been registered in Russia today: Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona and CoviVac. Purchase price is about 870 rubles. per dose and 1942 rubles. for both components. The Ministry of Industry and Trade reports that 30 million sets of 2 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine have been produced; 1.5 million sets of EpiVacCorons; 352 thousand sets of CoviVac. Thus, the figures show that Sputnik vaccines (the name Sputnik means Satellite - editor's note) have been produced 20 times more than EpivacCorona and 85 times more than CoviVac. That is, the authorities are placing their bets on this particular drug.

According to the statements of officials, in order to reach the herd immunity threshold, 60% of the population must be vaccinated. This is the figure that our authorities announced. And here simple calculations suggest themselves.

The population of the Russian Federation is 145.9 million people. Accordingly, 87.54 million people need to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity. Multiplying this number by 1942 rubles, we get an amount in excess of 170 billion rubles.

Agree, it's impressive. By the way, 1.5 billion rubles have already been officially spent on the development of Sputnik V.

Earlier it was announced that 182 billion rubles were allocated in the federal budget for drug provision and vaccination in 2021. For comparison: this is the annual budget of one of the regions of Russia, but almost 20 times less than the budget of Moscow.

There is no reliable data on how long the vaccine will protect the vaccinated person. Different experts named different dates. For example, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko said on June 21 that during the period of an epidemic rise, it would be necessary to be vaccinated in six months, and in a calm situation with the infection - once a year. That is, the annual cost of producing a vaccine can be multiplied by two. The amounts in this case are completely astronomical.

It is also worth noting that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), together with the Gamaleya Center, which developed the Sputnik vaccine, announced that Sputnik would be sold to foreign partners at a price of at least $ 20 per set. As of April 2021, it was known that Sputnik V was approved for use in 60 countries with a total population of over one and a half billion people. Experts believe that manufacturers will earn more than $ 30 billion from the export of the Russian vaccine in 2 years.

The most common and proposed vaccine today is Sputnik V. The registration certificate "Sputnik V" indicates that there are seven legal entities in Russia as vaccine manufacturers, including the Gamaleya center. In addition to him, the list also includes JSC "Binnopharm" (Zelenograd), JSC "Generium" (Vladimir region), JSC "R-Pharm" (Yaroslavl region), JSC "Biocad" (St. Petersburg), JSC "Pharmaceutical firm" LEKKO " (Vladimir region), JSC Pharmstandard-Ufa Vitamin Plant (Bashkiria).

Regnum journalists investigated the beneficiaries of the vaccine. Thus, the website of Binnopharm JSC specifies that 74% of the authorized capital of the company belongs to AFK Sistema. On the AFK website, the share of 59.2% in the structure of the group's share capital is indicated by Vladimir Yevtushenkov. In the ranking of “200 richest businessmen in Russia 2021” by Forbes magazine, he is ranked 41st with a fortune of $ 3400 million.

The next manufacturer of Sputnik V is JSC Generium , whose management announced that from July 2021 it will begin to produce 20 million doses of vaccine per month, bringing the annual production to 200-300 million doses. The founder of the company is one more vaccine manufacturer - CJSC Pharmaceutical Firm LEKKO.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, JSC Generium owns a 100% stake in LLC International Biotechnological Center Generium. In April 2021, Andrey Reus, known as the former Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy of Russia, the former General Director of Oboronprom , as well as Andrey Dementyev and two Cypriot companies, SILVERWALL HOLDINGS LIMITED and ANKOLI TRADING LIMITED, left the center.

Andrei Reus was the Deputy Minister of Industry of the Russian Federation when the department was headed by Viktor Khristenko, the husband of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who is the head of the headquarters for the control of the new coronavirus infection in the Russian Federation.

Who are the shareholders of JSC Generium? In 2017, the RBC publication named the billionaire Viktor Kharitonin, the founder of the Pharmstandard pharmaceutical holding, as the owner. Kharitonin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pharmstandard PJSC, is ranked 45th in the ranking of 200 richest businessmen in Russia 2021.

In one of the legal disputes between JSC Generium and the tax authority, data on the company's shareholders appeared. The court decision of June 2019 noted that among the shareholders of the asset are the Cypriot companies Ancolie Trading Limited, Gyroscope Enterprises Limited and Redillio Holdings Limited , but at the same time the tax authority stated that these companies “perform only technical functions in relation to the income received, related to the transfer of income to another person, and therefore cannot be considered as the actual owner of the income (beneficiary) ”.

The Generium company has one address in the Volginsky settlement together with Pharmaceutical Firm LEKKO CJSC, another manufacturer of Sputnik. Only the housing number is different. The Pharmstandard website states that Lecco, like Pharmstandard-UfaVITA, is part of the Pharmstandard group. In total, the group includes five plants - OJSC Pharmstandard-Leksredstva (Kursk), OJSC Pharmstandard-UfaVITA (Ufa), OJSC Pharmstandard-Tomskkhimfarm (Tomsk), CJSC LEKKO (Vladimir Region) and JSC Biomed near Moscow ".

The last open report of Pharmstandard was published at the end of 2016. At that time, a 100% stake was held by the Cypriot AUGMENT INVESTMENTS LIMITED. In 2018, the Kommersant newspaper named the billionaire Kharitonin as the main owner of the Cypriot asset.

Thus, at least three manufacturers of the Sputnik V vaccine turned out to be interconnected and lead to a large businessman, a figure on the Forbes list.

The next manufacturer is ZAO Biocad . According to open data, the company was founded by Dmitry Morozov, the former owner of the shares of Tsentrokredit Bank, and his business partner, Andrey Karklin . It is known from open sources that Karklin later sold his share to Gazprombank, but that, a few years later, resold it to the already known Pharmstandard of Viktor Kharitonin and Millhouse Capital of Roman Abramovich . The latter sold its stake in 2015 and, according to Forbes, 50% of Biocad as of September 2020 belonged to Viktor Kharitonin's partner, Valery Yegorov.

At the bottom of the list of manufacturers is "Sputnik V" JSC "R-Pharm" Alexey Repik , who is called one of the largest beneficiaries of the pandemic (he is the manufacturer of the drug "Coronavir"). Repik - No. 57 in the rating of "200 richest businessmen in Russia 2021". His fortune is estimated at $ 2,600 million.

There is information that other commercial companies will also join the production of the Sputnik V vaccine. Among these was the group "Pharmasintez" ("Pharmasintez-Nord") . The group, at its plant in the Irkutsk region, already produces pharmaceutical substances according to the "anti-tectonic" protocols - remdesivir and favipiravir. The head of the group and its founder is a businessman of Indian origin Vikram Punia.

The only vaccine with only one manufacturer on its registration certificate is KoviVac. It is produced by the Chumakov Center itself, but in August the Nanolek company may be added to the list of KoviVac manufacturers . This was reported by TASS at the end of June 2021. One of the founders, as well as the president of Nanolek, is the stepson of the head of the headquarters for the fight against coronavirus, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova and the son of Viktor Khristenko, Vladimir Khristenko. And the owner of Nanolek LLC is the Cypriot company NANOLEK HOLDING LIMITED. The ultimate beneficiary is unknown.

The production of the vaccine of the Novosibirsk center "Vector" - "EpiVacCorona" is also closed on the oligarchs. Apart from the developer, its manufacturer is two legal entities - Vector-BiAlgam JSC from the Novosibirsk region and GEROPHARM LLC from the Moscow region . "Vector-BiAlgam" was created in 1996 on the basis of the state scientific center of virology and biotechnology "Vector". Director of the JSC - Leonid Nikulin (owner of a share in the company that manufactures dairy products - LLC "Biamed").

The Geropharm company is known as a large Russian insulin producer. The firm is wholly owned by five members of the family of the founder, Pyotr Rodionov, and the president is his son, Pyotr Petrovich. And a little less than 2% in the firm belongs to OOO RDIF Investment Management-15. It is worth noting that Pyotr Ivanovich Rodionov is the former first deputy chairman of the board of Gazprom and the former head of the Ministry of Fuel and Energy of the Russian Federation.

The conclusion from all this is simple: vaccination, which has been made almost mandatory in Russia, brings colossal income to a very specific group of people.

It is hard to believe that when pledging 189 billion rubles for the vaccination of Russians, the government did not calculate who these funds will go to . In this regard, it is interesting to study the consulting company Knight Frank, which claims that by 2025 there will be 29% more billionaires in Russia with a fortune of over $ 30 million. Their number will be 10,346 people. All over the world, there will be more super-rich people by 2025, but by 27%. After all, not all countries produce a coronavirus vaccine with budget funds.