RDIF expects EMA’s visit in autumn to complete inspections of Sputnik V

MOSCOW, October 16. /TASS/. Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev expects a visit of the experts of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) this fall in order to complete inspections within the framework of approving the Sputnik V vaccine, according to his interview with the Fortune magazine. "We find [that] the EMA team is very professional. They had a good visit; they looked at clinical trial data, and they didn’t have any critical comments. We see some comments from the political side, from some of the politicians who say Europe shouldn’t have the Russian vaccines, but we don’t see it from EMA. We expect them to come back in the fall and complete the inspection," he said. He also stressed that various vaccine producers encounter different obstacles on different markets. "For example, AstraZeneca is still not allowed in the U.S. even though it’s allowed in the European Union and other nations," he noted. Sputnik V has not yet obtained the EMA’s green light for use on the territory of the EU. The position of the European Commission with the regards to this Russian vaccine has remained the same since EU COVID certificates were introduced in early July. EU member states that use Sputnik V (for example, Hungary) have the right to issue European digital vaccination certificates to people inoculated with it but it’s up to other EU countries to decide on recognizing these certificates. Sputnik V was registered in Russia on August 11, 2020, becoming the first officially certified vaccine against coronavirus worldwide. Read more