Germany should start negotiations with Russia on the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine to accelerate the pace of immunization of the population. This was stated by the head of the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt Rainer Haseloff in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe, RIA Novosti reports.
He cited the example of Hungary, which agreed on the supply of the drug with Moscow. “I would have been vaccinated with Sputnik V at any time,” a member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany assured. IDT Biologika, located in Saxony-Anhalt, is in talks with the Russian side on a possible production in Germany, Haseloff added.
According to him, Soviet polio vaccines were widely used in the GDR for decades even before similar drugs appeared in the West. At the same time, the German politician recalled that the Russian vaccine has not yet received certification from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), so its use in Germany is impossible.
In January, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) agreed with Hungary to supply Sputnik V. In February, Hungarian doctors began on Thursday vaccination against the coronavirus COVID-19 with a Russian drug.
In the same month, Czech President Milos Zeman announced that the country would buy Sputnik V from Russia, and a corresponding appeal had already been sent to Moscow. On March 1, Slovakia accepted the first batch of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, despite the fact that the vaccine has not yet been registered in the European Union and approval for its use is not being issued.
Sputnik V is the first registered Russian vaccine against coronavirus, it was created on the basis of another adenovirus, in which the coronavirus gene is embedded. When it enters the cells, it forms proteins in them – they cause immunity and promote the development of antibodies.
