Today, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the EU’s regulatory agency for vaccines, showed on their website that the “decision to start the rolling review” of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine “is based on results from laboratory studies and clinical studies in adults.” The studies “indicate that Sputnik V triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells that target the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and many help protect against COVID-19.” This understatement ends weeks of confusion and delay. In late January, the Russia Direct Investment Fund submitted its application for the EU to use the Sputnik V vaccine, and the confusion has reigned, as the EU at times suggested that there was no application.
Now, according to Corriere Della Sera, two specialists from Italy’s Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases will go to Russia to inspect the production of Sputnik V vaccines. Prof. Francesco Vaia, the director of the Institute, indicated that it was being done in coordination with the EMA. The phrase “rolling review” suggests that the EMA is now interested in expediting the processing of the application.
Meanwhile, the latest figures from the World Health Organization show that the Czech Republic and Hungary, and actually most of Central and Eastern Europe, are undergoing a resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the last week or two, after about six weeks of consistent decline.
