Test studies are being conducted in Russia with the Covid-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V.
Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “open” to the idea of producing the Russian coronavirus vaccine in the European Union, a spokesman for her agency said.
Germany has so far administered the highest number of vaccinations of the 27 European countries since the rollout began in late December. However, there are major differences within the block, where, for example, the Netherlands only started vaccinating on Wednesday.
The EU has been criticized for slow introduction of Covid-19 vaccines compared to other parts of the world, with the US, China and Israel leading the way in the number of doses administered.
Merkel discussed the response to the Covid-19 pandemic with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. During the phone call, she said she is “open to the idea of bilateral cooperation to tap into European production capacity (for the Russian vaccine),” Ulrike Demmer, deputy spokesman for the German government said Wednesday, according to Politico. .
A German government spokesman in Brussels confirmed the same statement to CNBC.
Germany has made it clear that this would only happen if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Sputnik V vaccine.
European regulators approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine last month and the Moderna shot on Wednesday. However, the EMA has not yet received a formal request to evaluate the Russian Covid vaccine for administration across the EU.
Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, the developers of the Sputnik V vaccine, said on Tuesday that more than 1 million people have received the shot, the Financial Times reported.
Vaccines for everyone
Earlier this week, Germany announced a further tightening of social restrictions, with school closures until January 31.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Thursday that there will be a vaccine for “everyone” this year. “By 2021, we will have received 50 million vaccine doses from Moderna and 90 million from BioNTech. That alone is enough to give virtually everyone a vaccination,” Spahn told German television ZDF.
Germany has about 83 million inhabitants.
Spahn told reporters on Wednesday that “if all goes well” there will be a new Pfizer-BioNTech plant in February to expand the number of vaccines available in Europe. BioNTech is a biotechnology company based in Mainz, a city on the Rhine in West-Central Germany.