German state would back production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine

BERLIN, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Germany, keen to speed up
vaccinations against the coronavirus, could back local vaccine
maker IDT Biologika by expediting approval for production if it
chose to help manufacture the Russian COVID-19 shot, a regional
official said on Thursday.

IDT Biologika, based in Dessau-Rosslau in eastern Germany,
produces viral vaccines for pharmaceutical companies including
the coronavirus shot developed by AstraZeneca's with
Oxford University.

"If IDT Biologika wants to produce the Russian vaccine and
it would be approved in the EU, we as a state government would
of course do everything to help the company," a spokesman for
the state of Saxony-Anhalt said.

This could include fast-tracking the approval process as has
happened in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse for
manufacturing capacity for BioNTech's and Pfizer's
vaccine, he said.

"There are no ideological reservations against Sputnik V. We
welcome anything that can help in the fight against corona."

Germany and other European Union governments are under fire
over a slow start to vaccinations in the EU. Critics point to
faster progress made in Britain, Israel and the United States as
evidence of a planning failure in Brussels and elsewhere.

Russian scientists gave Russia's Sputnik V vaccine the green
light on Tuesday, saying it was almost 92% effective in fighting
COVID-19 based on peer-reviewed, late-stage trial results
published in The Lancet international medical journal.

IDT declined to say whether it had been approached by
Russian developers. "We are in negotiations with various vaccine
manufacturers to jointly meet the major challenge of reliable
vaccine supply," a spokeswoman said, adding the company could
not provide information on current requests.

The German government has blamed the halting pace of
vaccinations, and a squeeze on supplies of the shots, on cuts to
deliveries from vaccine makers AstraZeneca, Pfizer and
Moderna.

Germany has said it would use Sputnik V if it is approved by
the EU's drug regulator, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has said
German regulator, the Paul-Ehrlich Institute, could help guide
Russia through the EU approval process.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Ludwig Burger
Writing by Caroline Copley
Editing by Mark Heinrich)