Cyprus mounting efforts to get Sputnik V vaccine doses

Deliberations between Cypriot and Russian health authorities are moving along as the island is scrambling to ensure that it will get the desired sum of 100,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine as soon as it gets the thumbs up from the European Medicines Agency.

The Cyprus News Agency, citing Health Ministry information, reported Friday that talks on the matter are expected to wrap up over the coming fortnight.

The Health Ministry is negotiating the purchase of 50,000 doses of the Russian vaccine, with the right to purchase an additional 50,000 doses, in line with a decision taken by the Council of Ministers took in early March in a bid to boost the island’s inoculation programme.

Nicosia has set the immediate delivery of the vaccines as a precondition for their purchase, as soon as it secures the necessary license by the EMA.

The EMA is conducting a review of Sputnik V but has yet to make a ruling on whether it can be used in the EU, with an investigation expected to launch next week into whether the vaccine’s clinical trials contravened ethical and scientific standards.