The health authorities in the country are seriously considering the possibility of purchasing COVID-19 vaccines developed by Chinese manufactures Sinopharm and Sinovac, Health Minister Venko Filipche said in an interview with TV Alsat’s “360 Degrees” show, adding that with the help of the Chinese Embassy in the country, they have already established contacts with the vaccine manufacturers.
“We are waiting to receive details regarding the contract, price and delivery and I believe that by the end of this week we will receive all the details. I would not like to talk about deadlines now, but the fact is that the vaccine manufacturers that first managed to enter the market, and it is Pfizer is facing challenges with manufacturing capacity. Many European countries are announcing filing lawsuits for non-fulfillment of agreements, Croatia has slowed down the vaccination process and that is something that makes us work in all fields to ensure an integral process, without a break from the moment vaccination begins as the vaccines are safe,” Filipche said.
When asked whether there can be a problem that these vaccines have not approved by the European Medicines Agency, Filipche said that the documents, the certificates that all vaccine manufacturers have from their home countries are completely relevant.
“The way in which all the results of clinical studies are evaluated, the process of making vaccines, specifically the ones we are talking about, is well known to our experts. They have analyzed all vaccines available on the market, so that there is no administrative barrier and, of course, that there is no doubt in the quality of the vaccines,” he said.
However, Filipche said that the country is not giving up on the planned doses through the COVAX mechanism, for which a meeting was announced on Friday at which it should be specified when and how many vaccines will arrive to the countries that applied through this mechanism. Pfizer is also expected to respond to the details of the agreement and permission for the quantities that should arrived from Serbia.
