Ukraine needs 3 years to produce its own covid vaccine – Stepanov

If Ukraine starts developing and producing its own coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible, the first results will be in three years.

Health Minister Maksym Stepanov expressed this opinion during an hour of questions to the government in parliament, Ukrinform reports.

"I insist: let's make our own production. Yes, it will take several years. But if we start now, we'll have vaccines in three years. If we start in two years, we'll have it in five. But we have to start. If we start five years ago, there would be no such problems now," Stepanov said.

The Minister stressed that in the conditions of a pandemic, the authorities should simplify the procedure for purchasing pharmaceutical products, introduce a special process, but always through the "Prozoro" system.

As Rubryka reported, on February 23, a batch of 500,000 doses of CoviShield coronavirus vaccine, developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, arrived in Ukraine.

On March 25, the first batch of 215,000 doses of CoronaVac vaccine from the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech was delivered to Ukraine.

On April 16, a plane with the Comirnati vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech arrived in Ukraine.