Studies on the vaccine candidate Covid-19 Sputnik V are being carried out in Russia.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “open” to the idea of producing Russia’s coronavirus vaccine in the European Union, according to a spokeswoman for her office.
To date, Germany has administered the highest number of inoculations among the 27 European nations since the launch began in late December. However, there are large discrepancies within the bloc, where, for example, the Netherlands only began vaccinating on Wednesday.
The EU has been criticized for a slow deployment of Covid-19 vaccines compared to other parts of the world, with the United States, China and Israel among those leading the number of doses administered.
Merkel on Tuesday discussed the response to the Covid-19 pandemic with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the phone call, she said that “she is open to the idea of bilateral cooperation with the aim of harnessing European production capacities (for the Russian vaccine),” Ulrike Demmer, deputy spokeswoman for the German government, said on Wednesday. , according to Politico.
A Brussels-based German government spokesman confirmed the same statement to CNBC.
Germany has made it clear that this would only happen if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave its approval to the Sputnik V vaccine.
European regulators last month approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Moderna jab on Wednesday. However, the EMA has not yet received a formal request to evaluate the Russian Covid vaccine for administration throughout the EU.
Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, developer of the Sputnik V vaccine, said Tuesday that more than a million people have been stung, the Financial Times reported.
Vaccines for everyone
Earlier this week, Germany announced a further tightening of social restrictions, with schools closing until 31 January.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday that this year there will be a vaccine for “everyone”. “In 2021 we will have insured 50 million doses of vaccine from Moderna and 90 million from BioNTech. That alone is enough to offer all users a vaccine,” Spahn told German television channel ZDF.
Germany has about 83 million citizens.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Spahn also said that “if all goes well” there will be a new Pfizer-BioNTech factory in February to expand the number of vaccines available in Europe. BioNTech is a biotechnology company based in Mainz, a city on the River Rhine in central Germany.