Hungary, the first of the EU countries to express its readiness to buy the Russian vaccine against coronavirus, outlined the timing of its delivery. Reuters reports this with reference to Foreign Minister Peter Siyarto.
So, Budapest will start importing a small amount of the drug from Russia in December 2020. This will be needed to complete clinical trials and licensing and vaccine research.
From January 2021, the Hungarian side is going to increase the purchase of the Russian vaccine. Moscow has promised that large deliveries to Hungary will be possible from the second or third week of January, Siyarto said.
Hungary's decision became known at the end of October. At the same time, the European Commission warned Budapest that if any of the EU countries purchases a foreign vaccine that has not passed certification, measures will be taken. They noted that vaccines developed by Russia or China will never become part of the EU's vaccination strategy.
To date, two vaccines against COVID-19 have been registered in Russia. The first drug to be registered was Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Center. On October 14, President Vladimir Putin announced the registration of EpiVacCorona from the Vector Center. There is no biological agent in the vaccine – it contains synthetic analogs of viral protein regions.
