PRAGUE, February 7. /TASS/. Slovakia could produce COVID-19 vaccines, including Russia’s Sputnik V, Slovak Prime Minister Igor Matovic said on Saturday on Slovak Radio.
"Slovakia could produce coronavirus vaccines, including Sputnik V," he said.
Matovic believes that Russia is interested in moving production of the vaccine to the states it delivers the vaccine to. The PM noted that Slovakia would be ready to supply other EU states with the Sputnik V vaccine if it was produced on its territory.
"If we were producing the vaccine, we would supply it to other EU states equally. We must not put geopolitical interests [of countries] over the interests of people," he stressed.
The PM added that Slovakia plans to discuss production of other vaccines, including Pfizer and Moderna, on its territory. The politician did not provide any further details.
Production capacity
Head of the European analytical center Comenius Analytica Vladimir Bacisin told TASS that the production of Sputnik V could be organized at a special pharmaceutical factory in the Presov Region in the eastern part of Slovakia.
Bacisin noted that Slovak medics had carefully studied the article published in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, which expanded on the results of the third stage of clinical trials of Sputnik V. The results confirmed the vaccine’s high effectiveness and safety. "Leading Slovak epidemiologists are recommending the government to acquire the Russian vaccine and to start using it in the republic as soon as possible," he stressed.