Kazakhstan suspends talks on buying AstraZeneca vaccine

NUR-SULTAN, March 17 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan has paused talks on purchasing the AstraZeneca AZN.L COVID-19 vaccine due to reports about its side effects, the Central Asian nation's healthcare ministry said on Wednesday.

"We are carrying out negotiations with regards to vaccines that have the least side effects," Asylbek Nurlybekov, deputy head of the ministry's pharmaceutical and medical control department, told a briefing.

Kazakhstan, which has already secured supplies and even arranged local production of Russia-developed Sputnik V vaccine, is also in talks on buying vaccines produced by Pfizer PFE.N, Moderna MRNA.O, Sinovac and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N, he added.

Kazakhstan's neighbour Uzbekistan, which received its first 660,000-dose batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Wednesday, provided for free under the COVAX initiative, said it would press ahead and use it.

Bahodir Yusupaliyev, the head of sanitary and epidemiological welfare and public health service, told a briefing that all vaccines had side effects and that Uzbek citizens would be able to choose between different vaccines.

(Reporting by Tamara Vaal;
Additional reporting by Mukhammadsharif Mamatkulov in Tashkent;
Writing by Olzhas Auyezov,
Editing by Louise Heavens)

((olzhas.auyezov@thomsonreuters.com; +7 727 2508 500; Reuters Messaging: olzhas.auyezov.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))