Why bringing Russian Covid vaccine by plane costs 20% more than Chinese if the flight is shorter

When evaluating the cost of vaccines against coronavirusNot only is the price of each dose important. It is also essential to know how much the logistics add to the final price. The vaccine plus effective of all, in this sense, he was the Covishield. Among those available in Argentina, it is followed by Sinopharm and finally the Sputnik V.

Bugle compared the costs of Flights who brought each batch and came to this conclusion by evaluating the price per kilometer traveled for each dose: in the case of the Sinopharm vaccine, this cost is 0.00034 cents per dollar ($ 3.4 for 10,000 vaccines); with Sputnik V, the value is 0.00041 centimes (4.1 every 10 thousand).

Moscow, where the Sputnik V are loaded to bring them to Ezeiza, is 17,334 kilometers aerial view of Buenos Aires. Beijing is far from Argentina 18,898 kilometers. This means that although the route is 1,564 kilometers shorter, bringing in the doses from Russia is a 20.6% more expensive to do it from China.

The analysis was carried out on the basis of public information, in which the government details the cost of each flight performed. What is not listed there is how many doses did each plane bring, something that Bugle in each case he came across information which is also public. From there are born these contrasts.

The question is why is this happening? Aerolineas Argentinas sources associated it with the “Logistics efficiency” that each vaccine allows. “With Sinopharm, it was possible to deliver up to a million doses in a single flight. With Sputnik V, the average is 500,000 and the maximum reached was 800,000 ”.

Looking at the list of flights and the cargo they carried, the first batch that arrived from Russia in December contained only 300 thousand doses ($ 304,570 was paid), which were the ones available at the time. Subsequent flights from Moscow in January and February were 300,000, 220,000 and 400,000 doses.

On the other hand, the first shipment from China was 904 thousand vaccines (428 thousand dollars were paid). And then there were two more thefts of a million doses each early and late April. The remaining million of the first 4 million purchased from Sinopharm arrived on three other flights. In other words, in total there were 6 trips.

In the case of Sputnik V, to complete the same number of doses, it was necessary 10 flights. This makes the cost of the trip per vaccine to be $ 0.72 for the cases of Sputnik V and $ 0.65, for Sinopharm. That is, 10 percent more than Russian. But if this revolves around the difference in kilometers between one source and another, the percentage double.

The difference in the transfer price, if calculated on the 20 million doses available in the initial contract with the Gamaleya Institute, would give a total of $ 1,394,460. Translating this into the number of Russian vaccines, the cost of “ineffectiveness” would be a few 140 thousand doses.

The most logistically efficient vaccine was the Covishield which, although arriving from India (15,917 kilometers), the freight cost per dose was 0.04 cents per dollar. It means 0.0000025 centimes per kilometer traveled, or $ 2.5 per million doses.

Why does the Sinopharm allow greater logistical efficiency than the Sputnik V and, in turn, the Covishield allow even greater savings than the other two? There is three causes which explain this, associated with terms that the Vladimir Putin administration imposes on countries wishing to use the Russian vaccine.

The first cause is availability of doses with which the Gamaleya Institute counts each time the Argentinian planes come to transfer the Sputnik to Buenos Aires. The second, the the way they are presented the dose. Finally, the requirements of refrigeration of each brand.

“When Sputnik arrives in a dose per vial, on a plane, they enter 300 thousand doses. When five doses per vial arrive, up to 800,000 enter. In the case of Covishield, there are 10 doses per vial. This allows them to fit on a regular flight, in the belly of the plane, which implies a large cost reduction“, They explained from Airlines.

The other key point is the technology used for cooling. In the case of Sputnik V, this requirement takes up almost more space than the volume of the vaccines themselves. They should be stored at a temperature of -18 to -20 degrees. Chinese women need between 2 and 8 degrees.

Sputniks arrive in containers of type “Thermal box” and require additional cooling load. Sinopharms, on the other hand, have the technology “Envirotainer”, which uses a battery to cool the vaccines so that the net dose content can be higher in the same space.

The transfer of the Chinese vaccine, however, also had its drawbacks. When each box contained three vials of one dose, it was possible to move a million per flight. Later, when the availability was single vial boxes, the volume tripled and this increased the logistical need.

Another limitation of the Chinese vaccine is that the manufacturer requires that the thermobox container can only be moved in the cellar and never in the cabin of the plane. Sputnik V allows it. Nevertheless, the results show that the costs of the Chinese vaccine have been more practical than those of the Russian.

Therefore, when the government demands that “Close the account” for each vaccine, the price differences between one and the other are reduced. The cost of each Russian dose (10 dollars), adding the most of the transfer stop being half than that of China ($ 20).

Availability to board

Regarding the amount of doses available at the point of origin, the Chinese prizes were more generous than the Russian prizes. This has to do with what the supplier was able to deliver to get the most out of each flight. Sometimes the planes came back from Russia full. Other, puffy because there were no more vaccines to bring.

“They tell us go and let’s go», They explain in the airline of the flag the orders entrusted to them by the Ministry of Health. Since the start of the operation to bring the vaccines, there have been weeks in which several flights with a few days of difference. The official explanation is that if Argentina does not seek these doses at the right time they can end up in another country.

From the initial contract, there is still to be brought a little more than half doses purchased in Russia. For Sinopharm, a new contract was announced for 6 million vaccines which would arrive between June and July. The good news is that the Chinese supplier will this time make even more efficient packaging, which will allow two million dose by plane. The cost difference logistics with Sputnik will be even higher.

From AstraZeneca, there will be some 17 million doses pending – out of a total of 22.4 million – after the last arrivals of nearly two million between this Sunday and Monday. In addition, travel is now shorter: This is no longer Covishield from India, but the vaccine whose active ingredient is manufactured in Argentina and packaged in the United States or Mexico.

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