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Private clinics banned from using vaccines unregistered in Russia

On Monday, Pfizer told TASS that the company was considering plans on applying for registering its COVID-19 vaccine in Russia

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Private clinics are not allowed to use coronavirus vaccines made by foreign companies, including the American company Pfizer, which have not been officially registered in Russia, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare’s press service told TASS on Thursday.

Earlier, the Russian branch of the Israel-based clinic Hadassah Medical Moscow, located in the Skolkovo Innovation Center, said that it was in talks with a number of companies from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the supply of foreign COVID-19 vaccines to Russia.

"In accordance with the current legislation, the import and the use of COVID-19 vaccines, which have not been officially registered in Russia, is prohibited. The ban also applies to medical organizations operating in the International Medical Cluster," the press service stated.

The federal service also noted that, currently, both registered and unregistered medicines are delivered to the country in accordance with the regulation on the medicines exported to the Eurasian Economic Union’s (EAEU) customs territory.

"In line with this regulation, unregistered medicines are exported to the EAEU’s territory provided that there is a permission. At the same time, the procedure for issuing such a document on the import of unregistered medicines for the International Medical Cluster’ purposes has not been approved," the press service said.

On Monday, Pfizer’s press service told TASS that the company was considering plans on applying for registering its COVID-19 vaccine in Russia. As the company said, Pfizer and BioNTech sought to ensure that the vaccine can meet the needs of the world's public health.

On December 11, the US Department of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Ten days later, the European Medicines Agency approved the vaccine for use on the European market.