Slovakia claims that the doses of Sputnik V she received "did not have the same characteristics and properties" as a version approved by a respected UK medical journal.
Russian vaccine diplomacy suffered a setback on Thursday when Slovakia, one of the few countries in Europe to order its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, said the doses purchased differed by version favorably reviewed by a respected UK medical journal.
A statement from The Slovak regulator of drugs questionin g the Russian vaccine suggested potentially serious quality control problems in the manufacture of Sputnik V and threatened recent progress made by Russia in gaining acceptance for its product.
Much of this progress is based on a peer-reviewed article published in The Lancet in February that gave the Russian vaccine a boost. He said Sputnik V had a 91.6% effectiveness rate against Covid-19, an endorsement Moscow used to increase confidence in the vaccine and bolster the The Kremlin 's Hand in Vaccine Diplomacy .
The Slovak regulator, the State Institute for drug control, however, said in a statement that batches of vaccines imported into the Eastern European country had "not the same characteristics and properties" as the version of Sputnik V reviewed by The Lancet.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund that financed the development of Sputnik V and conducted aThe campaign for its use abroad did not at the core of the Slovak agency 's statement but qualify it as "disinformation" and "fake news". In a series of contemptuous Twitter posts , the fund accused the state regulatory agency of having committed an "act of sabotage", claiming that Slovakia had violated the terms of its contract and demanding that the doses be returned.
The dispute follows a harsh political battle in Slovakia that began last month when Prime Minister Igor Matovic, who was last week forced to resign , announced that he had negotiated a secret deal with Russia for 200,000 doses of Sputnik V. The deal scandalized other members of a coalition governmenttion fragile, which accused Mr. Matovic of having succumbed to a Russian "tool of hybrid war" and of plundering the European Union, of which Slovakia is a member.
Mr Matovi c, who exchanged jobs last week with the finance minister in an attempt to save the government from collapse, met with Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in Moscow on Thursday .
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Slovakia The State Institute for Drug Control claims that the vaccine doses they bought in Russia did not come from its formula as a version that received positive reviews in a British medical journal. Credit ... Anton Vaganov / Reuters The fund, in a Twitter post, said it "remains committed to helping the Slovak population get vaccinated by Sputnik V. "In another tweet, however, the fund said it had sent a letterApril 6 asking Slovakia "to return the vaccine due to multiple breaches of contract so that it can be used in other countries".
The regulator of the European Union, the European Medicines Agency, until 'now refused to approve the use of the Russian vaccine and only two members of the bloc, Hungary and Slovakia, have placed orders for Sputnik V. Serbia, which is not a member of the bloc, has also ordered Sputnik V and began using it in a mass inoculation program that was far more successful than the stumbling efforts of most states in the European Union.
The epidemic coronavirus › Latest updates Sputnik V is manufactured at seven sites in Russia, as well as factories in India and South Korea. A number of other countries have signed manufacturing contracts, including Brazil, Turkey and Serbia. Russia has consistently delivered fewer doses of than originally promised, suggesting manufacturing issues. Large-scale vaccine production is a difficult process, and the ramp-up of production has also posed challenges for western vaccines.
about 40 countries are using or planning to use the Russian vaccine, the Slovak regulatory agency claimed that "these vaccines are only associated with the last name". This raised questions about deviations from the formula discussed in The Lancet.
"Comparability and consistency of different batches produced at different places has not been demonstrated ", Slovak "In several cases it seems to be vaccines with different properties (lyophilisate versus solution, single-dose ampoules versus multidose vials, different storage conditions, composition and manufacturing method).
The Slovak statement could undermine Russia's efforts to make Sputnik V a reliable brand. It could also exacerbate lingering doubts left by the highly politicized rollout of the vaccine in Russia, where President Vladimir V. Putin announced that the drug was ready for use in August, before the end of clinical trials.
Russia has repeatedly denounced the foreign questioning of its vaccine as the fruit of anti-Russian plots and prejudice, ignoring the complaints that Mr. Putin, rushing last summer to declare a Russian victory in the vaccine race, violated standard procedure by declaring Sputnik V safe before the end of testing.
In messages from Moscow on his page Facebook , Mr. Matovic, the former Slovak Prime Minister, complained about a "dirty game in Slovakia and accused politicians in his country of " barking "like little dogs. He said that Slovakia in the part of the original deal with Russia, had agreed to buy 2 million doses of Sputnik, and added that he would work to block what he called "the insidious and systematic efforts" to do so. derail the deal.
Kristina Hamarova in Bratislava and Andrew Kramer in Moscow contributed to the reporting.
