Economy 29 January 2021, 8:58am

Hungary to approve Sinopharm vaccine using legal shortcut

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The government has amended a decree on authorising vaccines in Hungary, which means the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine may follow AstraZeneca’s product in being approved for use in Hungary without testing at the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition (OGYÉI).

As reported earlier, government decree 488/2020 authorised the use of AstraZeneca’s ChAdOx1 S in Hungary, as drugs approved in the UK may also be approved in Hungary automatically.

In the Official Gazette published late on Thursday, this decree was amended and now in effect allows authorities to approve new vaccines by circumventing the OGYÉI experts’ testing.

In addition to vaccines authorised in the European Economic Area and in the UK, the government now also accepts vaccines that have been approved by at least three countries, one of which must be a EU member state or candidate, and have been used on at least one million people.

Whether a vaccine has been given to at least one million people will be judged by foreign minister Péter Szijjártó.

Sinopharm’s vaccine is currently being used in Serbia, a candidate for EU membership, and has been given to much more than one million people in China, indicating that the amended decree aims to pave the way for the purchase of this vaccine specifically.