The Slovak State Institute for Drug Control (ŠÚKL) said on Thursday that it was not told by anyone in authority that the testing of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine by the Slovak Academy of Sciences' Biomedical Centre would constitute a violation of the contract with the Russian producer. "The institute strongly protests against misleading statements made today by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) concerning the laboratory testing of batches of the Sputnik V vaccine imported to Slovakia," said the Slovak institute's spokesperson Magdalena Jurkemikova. She asserted that it does not know the content of the classified contract signed between Russian side and the Slovak Government.
The fund behind Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine said
on Thursday that Slovakia should return doses received from Russia due to
the fact that the Slovak side did not test the vaccine, which is not approved in the European Union at the moment, in a lab which is not part of a special network of certified laboratories. The request came in reaction to ŠÚKL's official statement that it could not issue an experte stance on the vaccine as it misses 80% of data it requested from the manufacturer and due to the inconsistency of individual batches.
"The Biomedical Center (BMC) of the Slovak Academy of Sciences carried out tests of the Sputnik V vaccine on the basis of a written request from the former Health Minister Marek Krajčí (OĽANO), " its spokeswoman Katarína Gáliková said on Friday afternoon. He asked for it on March 5th.
"BCM acted in good faith with above-standard work commitment and maintained a professional attitude during the whole process," she said, adding that the center communicated the results of tests only to the State Institute for Drug Control (ŠÚKL).
According to the spokesperson, the Slovak Health Ministry was informed that six of the 14 tests will be performed in the scientific laboratories of the BMC's Institute of Virology. Another eight tests were performed in the Biotechnology Laboratories of the BMC, which are registered in the European database EudraGMP and certified to perform microbiological, chemical and biological tests of drugs.
