Economy 22 March 2021, 10:18am

EU has 'absolutely no need' of Sputnik V vaccine, commissioner says

Portfolio

The European Union does not need Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 and can achieve immunity across the continent using European production, a leading EU executive said on Sunday in comments that provoked a backlash from the vaccine maker, Reuters reported.

“We have absolutely no need of Sputnik V,” Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, who heads the EU executive’s vaccine task force, told TF1 television.

Today, we clearly have the capacity to deliver 300 to 350 million doses by the end of June and therefore by July 14 ... we have the possibility of reaching continent-wide immunity,

he said.

Breton repeated a previous comment that the EU should help Russia with production of the vaccine if needed but priority should be given to the Europeans, he said.

In a series of Twitter posts, the Sputnik V vaccine maker accused Breton of being “clearly biased”.

“Europeans want a choice of safe and efficient vaccines, which you so far failed to provide,” it said. “If this is an official position of the EU, please inform us that there is no reason to pursue EMA approval because of your political biases. We will continue to save lives in other countries.”

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) launched a rolling review of the Sputnik V vaccine earlier this month.

Cover photo: Getty Images