Russia offering supplies of Sputnik V Covid vaccine 'if' Government interested

The Department of Health is only presently dealing with manufacturers whose Covid-19 vaccines have received approval from the European Medicines Agency. Picture: AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin

Russia is offering supplies of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to Ireland.

In a statement tonight, the federation’s Ambassador to Ireland said that although a number of EU member states have asked for supplies, Ireland isn’t one of them.

His Excellency Mr Yuriy Filatov said he has received letters from people in Ireland asking if the Irish government has expressed an interest in Sputnik V.

And he says Russia would be only too happy to supply us with the vaccine “if" the Irish government is interested.

The Department of Health is only presently dealing with manufacturers whose Covid-19 vaccines have received approval from the European Medicines Agency.

Although there is due to be some form of a review by the EMA into Sputnik V, it does not yet have approval from the agency.

And at present, the Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly has said Ireland “has signalled an intent to opt-in to contracts for a total of 18.5m doses”.

Ambassador Filatov said: “Many Irish citizens and media representatives regularly write to the Embassy asking if the Irish government contacted them on the issue of Sputnik V supplies and seeking ways to receive the Russian jab.

“I would like to assure all of them that we would like to help.

“We are open for any discussions on vaccine supplies to Ireland as well as other aspects of cooperation with the Russian vaccine producers – if there is an interest on the Irish Government side.” 

Ambassador Filatov said this at the end of a statement entitled “The World Needs Vaccines not Politics”, written in an attempt to combat negative comments at the European Commission level.

The Reuters news agency referenced on Monday, for example, the EU’s dismissal of Russia's global coronavirus vaccine supply campaign as “a propaganda stunt by an undesirable regime”.

In his statement, he notes how the Covid-19 vaccine success of the Russian scientists - given that Sputnik V was the world’s first registered vaccine against the virus - was “met with certain scepticism”.

His Excellency Mr Yuriy Filatov said he has received letters from people in Ireland asking if the Irish government has expressed any interest in Sputnik V.

This he said was based on “false perceptions that they cut corners by having registered a vaccine allegedly without adequate scientific data”.

“Some of the concerns expressed were genuine, others were clearly prejudiced and politicized,” he said.

And he cited the fact that The Lancet recently published a favourable report on the vaccine, which he said is approved for use in 51 countries.

But Ambassador Filatov said that if the EU wants to get over its vaccine supply issues, it needs to stop “Russia bashing”.

“Russia continues to receive many requests from partners, including the EU members, for direct supplies of Sputnik V,” he said.

“Russia has not been in the political “vaccine race” and Sputnik V rollout is not a propaganda exercise.

“Public health, both domestically and internationally, is at stake.

“Sputnik V and other Russian vaccines are part of the common global effort to curtail the pandemic.

“In this regard, it is particularly strange to hear from the EU leaders in Brussels allegations about Russia playing “geopolitical games” with vaccines.

“We understand frustration of some high-ranking EU officials in the face of current vaccines procurement and distribution problems but “Russia bashing” is definitely not a way to solve them.” According to Minister Donnelly in the Dail last Monday, six Advance Purchase Agreements (APAs) have been negotiated by the EU in a procurement exercise being operated on behalf of member states to procure “suitable, safe and effective” vaccines.

Ireland has opted-in to five APAs to secure vaccine supplies with BioNTech/Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Janssen/J&J and CureVac.

Government approval has been obtained to opt-into the sixth APA (GSK/Sanofi Pasteur), subject to the outcome of future clinical trial results.