Commissioner Breton’s view of Sputnik V that angered Russia: It is biased

The producers of the Russian vaccine against covid-19 today accused the European Commissioner Thierry Breton of prejudice, because he stated that the EU “does not need” the Sputnik V and estimated that Moscow would need European assistance.

Speaking to the French television network TF1 yesterday Sunday, as broadcast by AMPE, Breton, Head of the EU Vaccine Production Task Force, assured that Europeans will “not need Sputnik V under any circumstances” given that other vaccines have been approved.

“Sputnik V is a complementary vaccine, there are 350 million doses,” Breton said, explaining that “the Russians are having a hard time producing it and we will definitely need to help them.”

“If we need to offer them one or two factories for its production, why not, but for now we will see this as a priority for the Europeans in the second half of the year,” he said.

The producers of Sputnik V, for their part, criticized in a Twitter post today “the new, biased comments” against a “safe and effective vaccine”, which has been submitted to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for approval.

“Prejudice leads to failure. “Breton’s failures are clear to many in the EU,” they wrote in the official account of the Russian vaccine.

Sputnik V, originally announced for the summer, was initially received with skepticism abroad, but in February the scientific journal The Lancet wrote that it was credible.

However, the EU criticizes Moscow for its vaccination diplomacy, accusing it of propaganda aimed at gaining influence on the international stage with the delivery of Sputnik V to several countries, albeit in small quantities.

At the same time, Russia is trying to increase its agreements abroad for the production of this vaccine against it covid-19, announcing in the last two days two agreements for the production of 400 million doses in India, among others.