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| - Slovakia's drug regulator said on Thursday the composition of a batch of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine delivered to Bratislava last month could not be verified. The vaccine manufacturer hit back at Bratislava, insisting that all Sputnik V batches went through "rigorous quality control". Slovakia, an EU and NATO member state of 5.4 million people is battling one of the highest Covid-19 death rates in the world. Former prime minister Igor Matovic was forced to step down last week amid a scandal over his purchase of two million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, which so far has not received a green light from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for use in the European Union. "Batches of (Sputnik V) vaccine used in preclinical tests and clinical studies published in the Lancet journal do not have the same characteristics and properties as batches of vaccine imported to Slovakia," the State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) said a statement. "It is only its name that links it to the Sputnik V vaccines used in about 40 countries around the world," according to the SUKL report. "Based on laboratory tests alone, it is not possible to conclude on efficacy and safety in humans" of the batch sent to Slovakia, SUKL said. It said the vaccine manufacturer had not responded to repeated requests for data on the composition of the first 200,000 doses sent to Slovakia. The Lancet medical journal published a report in February that found Sputnik V to be over 90 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19, allaying transparency concerns over the jab used in Russia and Hungary. The Gamaleya institute, the Russian state agency behind Sputnik, took to Twitter on Thursday in defence of its vaccine. "All Sputnik V batches are of the same quality and undergo rigorous quality control at the Gamaleya Institute," it tweeted. The manufacturer claimed SUKL had "launched a disinformation campaign against Sputnik V" and rejected the Slovak allegation of a discrepancy between batches as "fake news". It added that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has backed the development of Sputnik, has also asked Slovakia to "return the vaccine due to multiple contract violations so that it can be used in other countries". Matovic, who has stayed on in government as deputy prime minister, visited Moscow on Thursday for talks on Sputnik. Afterwards, he blasted his opponents in Slovakia on his official Facebook page. "CONGRATULATIONS, YOU IDIOTS! You have taken the health of millions of people in Slovakia hostage!" he wrote. Sputnik V has sown division among former Eastern Bloc countries, with some seeing it as a Godsend and others as a Kremlin propaganda tool. Also on Thursday, Germany announced it would talk to Russia about purchasing Sputnik doses pending approval from European regulators, without waiting for coordinated EU action. juh-mas-amj/har
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