PARIS (Reuters) – The European Union does not need Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 and can achieve immunity across the continent with the help of European manufacturing, a leading EU executive said on Sunday in comments that a backlash from the vaccine manufacturer.
The European Commission has been criticized for slow vaccine roll-out as the bloc faces an increase in cases and as the former member of Britain’s vaccination program gets underway.
“We have absolutely no need for Sputnik V,” Thierry Breton, Internal Market Commissioner, who heads the EU executive’s vaccine task force, told TF1 television.
“Today we clearly have the capacity to deliver 300 to 350 million doses by the end of June, and so by July 14 we have … the opportunity to achieve continental immunity,” he said.
July 14, or Bastille Day, is France’s national holiday.
Breton reiterated an earlier comment that the EU should help Russia produce the vaccine if necessary, but that priority should be given to Europeans, he said.
“Doses are there, now people have to accept vaccination and we have the logistics,” he said.
In a series of Twitter posts, the vaccine maker accused Sputnik V Breton of being “clearly biased.”
“Europeans want a choice of safe and efficient vaccines, which you have not yet provided,” he said. “If this is an official EU position, please let us know that because of your political bias, there is no reason to seek EMA approval. We will continue to save lives in other countries. “
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched an ongoing review of the Sputnik V vaccine earlier this month.
Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Edited by Barbara Lewis and Daniel Wallis