Tokyo, Dec 16 (Sputnik) Japan so far has shown no interest in foreign-made Covid-19 vaccines, including Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine, as the country continues to make efforts to develop proprietary vaccines against the disease, the country’s health ministry told Sputnik.
The ministry stressed that it was unaware of any companies that were planing to file a request to use Russian-made vaccines in the country.
“Currently, we do not have information about companies that have showed interest in the Russian vaccine,” the ministry’s department for international health services strategy said.
The ministry noted that a study of a vaccine’s effectiveness and safety among Japanese is required to import to Japan or manufacture vaccines that are developed and approved abroad, including in Russia.
“Japanese companies are doing everything to develop their own vaccines, and cooperation with new partners seems difficult at present,” the ministry explained.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia has been at the forefront of vaccine development with two of its products, Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, and EpiVacCorona, developed by the Siberian research center Vector, already in the Phase 3 trials. Another vaccine, by the Chumakov research center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will begin Phase 3 trials early in 2021.
