Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel communicated by telephone to discuss the possibility of joint production of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine between the two countries, the Kremlin said today.
The Kremlin issued a statement saying, “The discussion on the topic of joint fight against the disease focused on the possibility of joint production of the vaccine.”
The Kremlin also said the two sides reached an agreement that the ministries of health and specialized agencies of the two countries “are in constant communication” on the issue.
Russia and Germany have recently launched mass vaccinations in their respective territories in order to stop the spread of the epidemic and to avoid the re-imposition of nationwide closures.
While Germany is using a vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, a biotech company based in Mainz, Germany, Russia is administering its own “Sputnik-V” vaccine.
Russia launched a mass vaccination campaign in early December last year, with high-risk groups as the first targets, including health care workers, teachers and the elderly.
Alexander Gintsburg, director of the official Gamaleya Institute, said that more than a million people in Russia have been vaccinated with the Sputnik-V vaccine so far. The Gamaleya Institute is the institution that developed the satellite-V vaccine.
Western countries have always been suspicious of satellite-V, but AstraZeneca, a joint venture between the U.K. and Sweden, announced last December that it would launch a clinical trial program combining its own vaccine with the satellite-V vaccine.
Both vaccines use adenoviral vectors, but it is unclear when these clinical trials will begin.
Recent Comments