SLOVAKIA TOLD TO RETURN SPUTNIK V VACCINES

Slovakia was told to return its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines "due to multiple contract violations." It came after Slovakia’s State Institute for Drug Control claimed the vaccines delivered to the country were different to elsewhere, Euronews reported.

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

The official Twitter account of the Sputnik V vaccine accused Slovakia’s drug regulator of an "act of sabotage" and said it had "launched a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V and plans additional provocation". It added the vaccine should have been tested in a laboratory that is part of the EU’s Official Medicines Control Laboratory network.

The institute said it "strongly objects to today's misleading claims" from the Sputnik V manufacturer and that the network of EU-certified labs is only for vaccines registered in the European Union, which is not the case with Sputnik V.

Sputnik V has not yet been approved for use in the EU, but the body’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), started a rolling review of the vaccine last month. The Russian side called claims the Sputnik V vaccines in Slovakia were different as “fake news.”

"All Sputnik V batches are of the same quality and undergo rigorous quality control at the Gamaleya Institute," it said. "The quality of Sputnik V has been confirmed by regulators in 59 countries." But the Slovaks said those vaccines seem to "have only the name in common".

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