Turkey has ruled out buying the Russian coronavirus vaccine since its development lacked “good practice”, its health minister said as Ankara steps up efforts to inoculate 50 million citizens by spring, QİA.AZ reports citing Reuters.
The Haberturk news website quoted Health Minister Fahrettin Koca on Wednesday as saying the Russian vaccine did not meet “good laboratory practice” conditions.
“Russia was not able to fulfil this. Therefore, it was not possible for the WHO (World Health Organization) and the world to purchase this vaccine,” Koca said. “It is not possible for this vaccine to receive a licence from us either. Therefore, it is out of our area of interest.”He did not specify which Russian vaccine he was referring to, but Turkey has spoken of conducting Phase III trials for “Sputnik-V”, the world’s first registered coronavirus vaccine.