Leo Varadkar is in favour of bringing in Russian vaccines to boost our jabs programme.
We currently have access to three different producers’ products in our race to vaccinate the country.
They are Pfizer/BIONTech, Moderna, and the latest to come on stream, AstraZeneca.
But there has been supply chain problems with all three, and pressure has been growing on the Government to look for jabs outside the joint EU deals.
Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Mr Varadkar, indicated to fellow Fine Gael TDs that buying the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V, could be considered.
And he also spoke about it at the weekly Parliamentary Party meeting on Wednesday night.
There he told his party faithful that it was “unfortunate” that the EU was not considering doing business with Russia over potential vaccines supply.
He also said that “the data is good” in relation to the efficacy of Sputnik V and that he hoped the EU regulators would consider the alternative vaccine soon.
Our EU colleagues in Hungary have already done a deal with the Russians outside of the EU framework, buying one million of the Russian doses.
Last month, Irish EMA (European Medicines Agency) chief, Emer Cooke, told a webinar in Dublin that her agency is “in discussions” with the Russian vaccine suppliers.
There are currently six vaccines in the EMA pipeline, with two already approved, two at the rolling review stage and two more that are coming soon.
But outside of Europe to the East there are millions more vaccines being rolled out in Russia and China that aren’t part of the EU schedule.
Ms Cooke revealed at the IIEA (Institute of International and European Affairs) briefing for journalists and IIEA members that the Russian vaccine could be coming.
She said that the EMA is “very open” to working with the Russians on Sputnik V.
Ms Cooke said: “We will evaluate any vaccine, regardless of its origin.
“But at the moment we haven’t yet had applications for the Russian and Chinese vaccines.
“I can say that, the Russian vaccine, we’re in discussions with the Russian vaccine developer.
“So, we can only elaborate on something that we’ve actually seen and we haven’t seen these dossiers to date.”
However, Ms Cooke then added that they are very keen to engage with the Russians.
She said: “We’re very open to discussing and looking at the dossiers and hopefully evaluating them.
“If they have a role in this pandemic, we want them to play that role.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, said Sputnik V would be produced in seven countries.
He said that regulators in nine countries are expected to approve the vaccine for domestic use soon.
It has already been approved in Argentina, Belarus, Hungary and Serbia.
