Slovakia to send back Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine due to contract violations

Slovakia was told to send back its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines “due to multiple contract violations”.

It came after Slovakia’s State Institute for Drug Control claimed the country’s vaccines were different to elsewhere.

The institute stated it had also not received enough data about Sputnik V to be able to assess its benefits and risks.

The official Twitter account of the Sputnik V vaccine hit Slovakia’s drug regulator of an “act of treason” and said it had “launched a disinformation attack against Sputnik V and planned new provocation”.

It added the vaccine should have been tested in a lab that is part of the EU’s Official Medicines Control Laboratory network.

The institute said it “strenuously objects to today’s misleading claims” from the Sputnik V business and that the system of EU certified labs is only for vaccines listed in the European Union, which is not the problem with Sputnik V.

The Russian side called calls the Sputnik V vaccines in Slovakia were different as “fake news.”

“All Sputnik V groups are of the same quality and support rigorous quality control at the Gamaleya Institute,” it said. “The quality of Sputnik V has also been confirmed by governors in 59 countries.”

But the Slovaks stated those vaccines seem to “have only the title in common”.

Slovakia’s coalition government failed last month after Prime Minister Igor Matovic orchestrated a mysterious deal to buy 2 million Sputnik V vaccines despite his coalition partners’ arguments. Matovic embraced the first 200,000 Russian vaccine doses at the airport on March 1.

Matovic, who now works as the finance minister and deputy prime minister in the new house that was sworn in last week, was in Moscow on Thursday to present more vaccine offerings. The Russians told Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund that bankrolled the vaccine and marketed it abroad, had “a fruitful meeting” with Matovic.