(Reuters) – Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, has applied for the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine to be registered with the European Union and expects it to be reviewed in February as Moscow seeks to accelerate its availability worldwide.
The official bill promoting the vaccine tweeted the latest development on Wednesday, moving a little closer to approval, as countries around the world are planning massive vaccine launches to contain the pandemic.
The Sputnik V vaccine has been approved in Argentina, Belarus, Serbia and several other countries.
The Sputnik V and European Medical Agency (EMA) teams conducted a scientific review of the vaccine on Tuesday, said the Sputnik V account, adding that the EMA will make a decision on whether to authorize the vaccine based on the reviews. (https://bit.ly/39OQZDR)
Although vaccines from Pfizer Inc and Moderna Inc have begun to be distributed in several countries, experts said that several vaccines will be needed to control the pandemic that has killed more than two million people worldwide.
Mexico, which is seeing a reduction in dose deliveries of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine, said it plans to make up for the deficit with doses from other suppliers.
Russia would submit a formal request to the European Union in February for approval of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference last week.
The approval of the emergency use of the vaccine was recently postponed in Brazil, after the country’s health regulator said that the documents supporting the request did not meet the minimum criteria.
(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar, additional reporting by Manas Mishra; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Bernard Orr)