Vaccine against the Omicron strain: why its production was slowed down

Irina Mishina

Joy with tears in my eyes

The good news about the production of a vaccine against the Omicron strain spread at the speed of light. Many postponed routine vaccinations in order to wait for a new drug and get vaccinated against a new strain, which was scared in South Africa and in Europe. It seems to have already been brought to Russia, but how many people have had it, is not yet known. Doctors in polyclinics suddenly became accommodating and stopped sending people for PCR tests. But 2 years ago, it was worth sneezing or coughing - the "cosmonauts" with their PCRs were right there.

Having announced the release of the vaccine against Omicron, the head of the Gamaleya Center Alexander Gintsburg suddenly went on vacation and disappeared from the sight of journalists. However, our sources are at the Gamaleya Center assured that everything was in order with the Omicron vaccine, and it was allegedly already in the refrigerator.

They rejoiced early. The other day, TASS broadcast a message: "Sputnik V" is working against the omicron strain. And if you want not to get sick with a 100% guarantee, you need to revaccinate. After reading this, many vaccinated people thought: "How many times do you have to inject?"

What happened?

The official announcement was as follows: “According to the results of a study by the Gamaleya Center, "Sputnik V" when infected with "Omicron" will provide reliable protection against severe cases of illness and hospitalization, and if, after six months, Sputnik Light is also vaccinated, the level of protection against the new strain will exceed 80%. Pfizer / BioNTech also announced the effectiveness of their vaccine against the new strain - for this, according to the companies, three doses of the drug will be required.

Three injections, and then three more, and so on?

Most experts were afraid to openly express their opinions. But something was leaked to the media. For example, one well-known journalist covering medical issues could not resist: "I think, until they empty the warehouses with Sputnik V, they will not produce a new vaccine".

We decided to ask the doctors what they think about ways to avoid contamination with Omicron.

“So far, there is a riot in scientific and medical circles. There are no specific scientific works. And yet the number of cases of the Omicron strain in the world and in Russia is growing, this must be understood. The treatment protocols are still in effect. Most likely, they will not produce and test a new vaccine: apparently, there are some financial reasons here, they did not want to invest in it now. But if the incidence of the Omicron strain continues to grow, there will be a hospital crisis, and then they might start thinking", - summed up Nikolay Malyshev, Doctor of Medical Sciences.

It should still be borne in mind that in the Research Center Gamaleya produced an experimental model of the vaccine against the Omicron strain. She did not undergo clinical trials, therefore it is too early to talk about her.

“There are problems of capital investment on the part of producers. If Sputnik works against Omicron - and they claim that its efficiency reaches 80% - then that is good. Indeed, today "Omicron", tomorrow "Omega" ... Gintsburg has a scientific interest, Murashko is more likely to have a production interest. But the problem is that we don't have anything popular about the effects of vaccines, there are no popular publications, hence all the speculation. In Japan, for example, comic book authors have released illustrative pictures that simply and intelligibly tell how a particular vaccine works, people understand everything and do not sign up for antivaxers. We really lack such agitation, in my opinion”, - says Larisa Popovich, director of the Institute for Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics.

Who gets treatment, and who gets profit

As for the production and financial interest - here, in my opinion, to the point. Back in December 2020, RBC reported that the Russian Ministry of Health registered the manufacturer's maximum selling price for the Sputnik V vaccine at 1,942 rubles. At the end of February 2021, the government halved the selling price for this vaccine to 866 rubles 81 kopecks for two components. And then a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation said that more than 30 million sets of Sputnik V, almost 1.5 million of EpiVacCorona and 352 thousand of KoviVac were produced in the country. Thus, about 32 million vaccine kits have been put into circulation. Even if we count the delivery of 30 million doses of Sputnik V at the February selling price, the figure is impressive - almost 26 billion rubles. Earlier it was said 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 an entire region of Russia. And do you think someone will give up this neglected profitable process: production - a billion-dollar state order - sales?

Meanwhile, the increase in the incidence of the Omicron strain is impressive. In the first half of December alone, about 12 thousand diseases caused by Omicron were confirmed in the world. These are the cases when the strain was sequenced, and the conditions for this are not everywhere. In fact, there may be much more Omicron carriers. And here literally the question of life and death arises. That is, lethality after infection with the strain. So far, the world is discussing only one death of a patient infected with Omicron. It was announced by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This may be just the beginning. So, in the United States, the new strain has already become dominant, accounting for more than 70% of all infections. At the same time, the first assumptions about the light flow of "Omicron" were not confirmed. There are already many cases of moderate severity in the world.

In the early days of Omicron's appearance, Italian scientists took a snapshot of the virus. Its shell showed 32 new mutations compared to the "base" strain that triggered the pandemic. The "Delta" spike protein, as you know, had about a dozen changes. So to say that Omicron is safe and amenable to the Sputnik V vaccine is at least controversial.

However, we already went through something similar 2 years ago. Then the Wuhan strain in Russia was also dubbed harmless.