Romania’s Government will complete next week the transfer of the Cantacuzino research institute, the country’s only vaccine producer, from the Health Ministry to the Defense Ministry, said defense minister Mihai Fifor.

The Government will adopt an emergency ordinance in this sense, the minister added. The bill will provide that the Cantacuzino institute will become a military medical institute.

The production of vaccines could start again in a year and a half, Fifor said. The production could be moved to Baneasa, in Northern Bucharest. The research institute is currently located in the center of Bucharest.

The Cantacuzino Institute returned under the Health Ministry’s authority, after an emergency ordinance adopted by the Government on December 8, last year. Previously it was under the coordination of the Research Ministry.

The Mihai Tudose cabinet decided to transfer the institute to the Defense Ministry because of the “hybrid war threats” and the need to create a unitary platform for vaccine research and production.

editor@romania-insider.com