Hungary plans fast-track local approval for Chinese COVID vaccine
The European Commission has already said that Hungary's plans to import and possibly use Russia's Sputnik V vaccine raise safety concerns and could damage trust in vaccines.
By REUTERSA volunteer receives an injection in a human clinical trial for a potential vaccine against the novel coronavirus, at the Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, South Africa, June 24, 2020(photo credit: REUTERS/SIPHIWE SIBEKO)
Hungary will seek emergency domestic approval of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine rather than waiting as normal for a review by the EU's European Medicines Agency (EMA), Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page."The safety of the vaccine is not a political or ideological question, but a professional one," he said. "If the experts make a positive decision, we will immediately begin drafting the contract to import the vaccine."He said Hungary had received the required documentation on Friday, without naming the vaccine or the manufacturer.Britain similarly used an emergency dispensation in European Union rules to allow its own scientists to approve a Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for domestic use - although the EMA bristled, saying its longer procedure was more appropriate and based on more evidence.The European Commission has already said that Hungary's plans to import and possibly use Russia's Sputnik V vaccine raise safety concerns and could damage trust in vaccines.Neither Russia nor China has yet sought EMA approval for any of the vaccines it is developing.Szijjarto did not say which Chinese vaccine Hungary was seeking to fast-track. On Thursday, he told parliament Hungary was working with three Chinese manufacturers, of which two are private firms and one state-owned, but did not name any of them.China has approved three vaccine candidates developed by Sinovac Biotech Ltd and state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) for emergency use in China, and Sinopharm hopes its two candidates will get conditional approval for general use this year.Budapest has become used to deviating from a collective EU approach. Prime Minister Viktor Orban delayed the bloc's 1.85 trillion euro ($2.24 trillion) budget and recovery package by several weeks because of objections to rule-of-law conditions.Hungary has pressed ahead with the Russian vaccine project, sending experts to observe manufacturing and potentially volunteering thousands of people to help test the Sputnik V vaccine. ($1 = 0.8244 euros)
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