Serbia's Torlak Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera signed a contract on Monday on technology's transfer with the Russian Fund for Direct Investments and the Generium pharmaceutical company to start the production of the Sputnik V vaccine in the country, Nenad Popovic, Minister without portfolio in charge of innovations and technological development, said.

“As of now, Torlak has access to data about the production of the Sputnik V vaccine. Those are sensitive and classified data that only the partners with huge mutual trust can exchange,” Popovic said.

He added Torlak would produce three validation series of the vaccine this month.

The samples would be sent to Russia for the quality check, Popovic said. After that, the production was expected to begin by May 20.

That would make Serbia the first country in Europe to produce the Russian vaccine, Popovic said.