Epidemiologist Fedir Lapii: «The AstraZeneca/Covishield and AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccines are identical and interchangeable»

The AstraZeneca/Covishield and AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccines are identical and interchangeable. This was announced during a press conference by the chairman of the National Technical Group of experts on immunoprophylaxis, immunologist Fedir Lapii.

«The AstraZeneca-SKBio vaccine is not just identical to the AstraZeneca/Covishield medicine, it is interchangeable, because it is made by the same technology. People who receive the first dose of the Covishield vaccine will receive the second dose of the SkBio vaccine», - Lapii said.

The epidemiologist recalled that the SkBio vaccine is administered according to the same scheme as CoviShield. Two doses at 12-week intervals.

As reported, on April 23, 2021, Ukraine received 367,200 doses of the AstraZeneca-SkBio vaccine, which was produced by SK Bioscience in South Korea. In Ukraine, it was registered on April 20, 2021. Earlier, Ukraine received 500 thousand doses of Covishield vaccine produced by the Indian Blood Serum Institute. Permission to its use was also given by the United Kingdom, the European Union and India. In Ukraine, the vaccine was registered on February 22, 2021.Both medicines, AstraZeneca/Covishield and AstraZeneca-SKBio, are approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization (WHO).