They provided us with another Sputnik V, vaccines related only to the name, the Slovak Medicines Office said

“According to published reports, Sputnik V should be used in about 40 countries around the world, but these vaccines are only related to the name,” KL said.

Slovakia imported 200,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine over a month ago, but they remain unused. ŠÚKL indicated that the pharmaceutical form of the vaccine imported into Slovakia differs from the ready-made drug, which will be subject to evaluation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). The Slovak Institute has access to documents submitted by the Sputnik manufacturer to the EMA as part of its ‘Ongoing Review’.

According to the rules, the vaccine itself was not only approved as such. The same vaccine must be approved from each individual process to see if they are identical.

ŠÚKL claims that it cannot derive a balance between the benefits and risks of the Russian vaccine, its pharmaceutical quality, efficacy and safety, or the quality of imported and laboratory-tested batches.

The Slovak Institute said: “There is no evidence that the imported vaccine is the same vaccine being evaluated by the EMA under central registration.”

He added that he had not received about 80 percent of the required data from the Russian vaccine manufacturer regarding Sputnik V.

In Moscow, current Finance Minister Igor Matovich, who has pushed to buy the vaccine as prime minister despite opposition from part of the coalition, is discussing the delivery of the Russian vaccine on Thursday.

Matovic said: “Any condemnation and systematic efforts to prevent the use of Sputnik V throughout Slovakia, I condemn from the bottom of my heart and I will do my best to ensure that they are ultimately unsuccessful and that Sputnik V can be vaccinated in Slovakia.” The social network before departure to Moscow.

According to media information, Matovi is scheduled to visit Budapest on Friday. Hungary is the only member state of the European Union to use the Russian vaccine so far.

The issue of the first shipment of a Russian vaccine to Slovakia, which was imported against the will of the coalition partners, exacerbated the government’s crisis in the country. This resulted in the replacement of the Prime Minister and Minister of Health.

In Slovakia, there were 1,576 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 and 79 deaths. There are 2,596 patients infected with COVID-19 in hospitals, of whom 243 are in the intensive care unit and 333 in pulmonary ventilation. So far, a total of 368,470 people have been confirmed in the country so far. Since the beginning of the epidemic in Slovakia 10,322 people have died.

The first dose of the immunized vaccine was 795,683 and the second was 269,583. Slovakia currently only uses vaccines approved in the European Union.