Germany Is to Negotiate with Russia on Sputnik V Supply

Negotiations between Berlin and Moscow on the timing and volume of supplies of the Russian vaccine against coronavirus will begin only after the drug is approved in the EU, the head of the German Ministry of Health said. Germany will hold bilateral negotiations with Russia on the supply of the Sputnik V vaccine. The Minister of Health of Germany Jens Spahn announced this on Thursday, April 8. However, before the drug must be approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), for which Moscow needs to provide the EU with data on the vaccine, Span added. The vaccine must be delivered to Germany within the next 2-5 months, since after them the Federal Republic will somehow be able to provide itself with more than a sufficient number of doses of vaccines, the head of the Ministry of Health of the Federal Republic of Germany emphasized. Therefore, after the approval of the drug, EMA Berlin expects from Moscow a specific volume and delivery dates. Earlier on Wednesday, the European Commission announced that it did not plan to conclude an agreement on the centralized supply of Sputnik V to the EU, as it did with suppliers of other vaccines. Bavaria to order 2.5 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine The European regulator is now testing the Russian vaccine for the safety of use according to the same methodology that was used in relation to other drugs already approved for use in the EU: BioNTech / Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Meanwhile, the authorities of the federal state of Bavaria, even before the registration of "Sputnik V" in the EU, signed a statement of intent to order 2.5 million doses of the Russian vaccine against coronavirus. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2 has been identified in almost 134 million people on the planet, more than 2.9 million patients with COVID-19 have died, and about 108 million have recovered. Countries are vaccinating their populations. Most of the confirmed infections and deaths occur in the United States. In Germany, the total number of infected people reached 2.93 million, of which 77.7 thousand died, and more than 2.63 million recovered. German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not expect further easing of quarantine restrictions due to the increase in the number of infections.