(Al Jazeera) – Hungary moves to secure doses of UK and Russian-made vaccines despite lack of green light from EU’s medicines regulator.
Hungary’s drug regulator has given initial approval for use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff says, confirming media reports.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto was travelling to Moscow for talks about the Sputnik V vaccine later on Thursday, Gergely Gulyas told a briefing on Thursday.
If he secures a shipment deal with Russia, Hungary would be the first European Union member to receive the Sputnik V shot, underlining Budapest’s rush to lift coronavirus lockdown measures in order to boost the economy, even though the EU’s medicines regulator has yet to green-light the Russian vaccine.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also not approved the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the United Kingdom but a decision is expected on January 29.
