Turkey is in discussions with Germany for joint production of a coronavirus vaccine, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday in Istanbul amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In our negotiations with Germany, there is also the matter of joint vaccine production. TUBITAK (the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) continues its work on this issue,” Erdoğan said.
Last week, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Turkey and German firm BioNTech struck a deal under which an initial 550,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine would be sent to the country in early 2021 at the latest.
According to Koca, 4.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be sent to Turkey by the end of March 2021 under the agreement. Turkey could have access to up to 30 million doses as part of the deal, he added.
Erdoğan stressed that Turkey had made progress in vaccine procurement, adding that some 3 million doses have been received and these efforts would continue.
The president was referring to the arrival of the first shipment of CoronaVac jabs on Dec. 30 from the Chinese firm SinoVac Biotech.
