Negotiations on the production of a Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus in Hungary continue, said Pavel Ilyin, Russian trade representative in Hungary, on Monday.
Recently the Hungarian National Health Center confirmed that the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine was finally approved for use.
“There was a talk about this (production in Hungary – ed.), the negotiations are continuing. So far, we can say that these are negotiations at the political level, not at the level of companies and technical issues. This was discussed primarily during the meeting of the intergovernmental commission, which took place at the end of November last year”, – Ilyin said on the air of the Russia-24 TV channel.
In addition, Ilyin noted that “there was a preliminary agreement (on the localization of production) that one of the Hungarian companies expressed their readiness”.
“Now the issue is being resolved. Nobody can say exactly when the process will be launched. But we continue to monitor and hope”, – he added.
The scientific journal Lancet previously published the results of the third phase of clinical trials “Sputnik V”, confirming the high efficacy and safety of the vaccine. During phase III clinical trials, Sputnik V demonstrated high rates of efficacy, immunogenicity and safety – the vaccine efficacy was 91.6%. The vaccine provides complete protection against severe cases of the new coronavirus infection.
“Sputnik V” was registered by the Russian Ministry of Health in August 2020, it was developed by the Gamaleya Research Center for Electrochemistry. This vaccine was the first in the world to prevent COVID-19. Sputnik V is built on the well-studied and proven platform of human adenoviral vectors.
The use of the Sputnik V vaccine was previously approved in 21 countries: Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, the Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon and Myanmar.