Minister: In 15 Days Torlak to Start Producing Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine

Torlak Institute of Virology (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Serbian Minister without Portfolio Nenad Popovic, who is in charge of innovation and technological development, announced on May 20 that Serbia is around two weeks away from beginning the production of the Russian vaccine against COVID-19, Sputnik V, at the Belgrade’s Torlak Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera.

“In the next 10 to 15 days, the substance – kept at between two and eight degrees Celsius - will be sent from Russia, and Torlak will have to use the substance in 10 to 15 days, and that is when we should, approximately, have the first vaccine. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of vaccines,” the minister told the RTS public service.

Popovic said that Serbia has invested over EUR50 million in that public institute, so that “the full production” of the vaccine at Torlak can be begin by the end of the year, i.e. the production of the vaccine substance in Serbia by the early 2022.

According to the media, the Russian Gamaleya Research Institute has confirmed the quality and approved the Sputnik V vaccine produced by the Torlak Institute.