Austria to buy Sputnik V vaccine after EMA approval

Austria will only buy Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine if the European Medicines Agency approves it, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s office said on Tuesday, further clarifying its position on the planned purchase.

Facing public frustration at a slow vaccine roll-out, Kurz said on March 31 Austria would probably order a million Sputnik V doses within a week, but completion of that order still has yet to be announced.

It would be the first by a western European country. Hungary and Slovakia are the only European Union countries to have bought Sputnik V, and only Hungary has used it so far. Kurz clarified on April 19 that Austria would await EMA approval before using it.

“As far as the contract negotiations are concerned, they have been completed, so we do not see that as the big challenge but rather the decisive factor is simply how long EMA needs for approval here,” Kurz told a news conference with his Slovak counterpart Eduard Heger.