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Such talks would mean that Brussels, which has publicly labeled Russia’s global vaccine supply campaign propaganda and is criticized for the slowness of vaccination in the EU, has radically changed its mind.
As the number of new cases and deaths increases, EU member states Hungary and Slovakia have already acquired doses of Sputnik V without waiting for a joint decision from the 27-nation bloc, The Moscow Times reports.
Requests from four EU member states are needed to start negotiations with Sputnik V developers to buy the vaccine, Reuters told an anonymous EU official in charge of negotiating with vaccine manufacturers.
According to Reuters, the same EU official said, Italy is considering using its largest vaccine bioreactor, Sputnik V.
Last week, Bloomberg announced that Swiss company Adienne Pharma & Biotech SA had agreed to produce a Russian vaccine at its Milan, Italy plant.
Under new Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Italy is now pressuring EU leaders to consider buying doses of Sputnik V to vaccinate more people and increase the bloc’s limited resources, Reuters reported.
According to Russian news agencies, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rick Daems, said on Monday during a meeting with the president of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Vyacheslav Volodin, that the EU is considering acquiring doses by Sputnik V.
Sputnik V is currently being evaluated by the EU’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
If Sputnik V were to join the EU’s vaccine arsenal, it would be a diplomatic triumph for Russia, whose trade with the bloc has been stalled for years due to sanctions following the annexation of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine.
If EVA approves Sputnik V, the bloc is likely to split into two parts: one for member states that support cooperation with Russia and one for non-members, an EU diplomat told Reuters.
On Saturday, the Swedish Vaccine Coordination Authority informed the country’s media that Sweden could receive doses of Sputnik V starting in June if the EVA approves the vaccine.
Lithuania has decided not to buy the Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine, even if it is approved by the EVA. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis has said that he sees this Russian vaccine as a political tool.
In the European Union, Hungary is currently using Sputnik V and it is also being negotiated by Austria and the Czech Republic. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says that talking about other vaccines from alternative manufacturers “is not very serious” because they have not started the approval procedure at the European Medicines Agency.
Sputnik V developers said on Monday that they had reached agreements on the production of the preparation in several EU countries.
Kirill Dmitryev, director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RTIF), which finances the Sputnik V program, said in a statement that his organization had secured “agreements with companies from Italy, Spain, France and Germany to start production of Sputnik V” . .
According to Dmitrijev, these agreements will allow the supply of the Russian vaccine to the European market “once it is authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA)”.
Earlier this month, the Amsterdam-based EVA launched a follow-up review of Sputnik V, an important step in approving the first non-Western product for use in the 27-nation bloc.
However, several EU countries have already started to distribute it.
Hungary approved Sputnik V in February and began using it in its vaccination campaign. The Czech Republic and Slovakia also ordered the drug and said they would not wait for EVA approval.
According to the developers, Sputnik V has been registered in more than 50 countries.
Russia certified the drug in August last year, which has yet to conduct large-scale clinical trials, leading many experts to question the drug.
However, the authoritative medical journal The Lancet subsequently published research showing that the vaccine is safe and 91.6 percent effective. The third stage of clinical trials involved 20,000. volunteers.
RTIF said on Monday that 3.5 million people in Russia have received both doses of Sputnik V.
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