A medical worker has a syringe with the vaccine Covid-19 Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V).
Alexander Reka | TASS | Getty Images
Europe should be open to using and using the coronavirus vaccine against Russia’s Sputnik V, according to Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, amid what he described as a “Pfizer monopoly” across the region. .
Dmitriev in RDIF, which supported the development of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, told CNBC that the vaccine could be useful for Europe, where immunization programs against Covid have been slow to move forward.
“It’s very important for Europe to be open to different vaccines because it’s not good to have a Pfizer monopoly in Europe,” Dmitriev told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe” on Monday.
“It’s good to have AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and other vaccines so that prices are reasonable and Europe is not subject to the vaccine monopoly that could be in the process of being created.”
The coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and the vaccine by Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech are currently the predominant vaccines in Europe. However, the former has been the subject of investigations by the European Medicines Agency out of concern that it could be related to a reduced number of rare but serious blood clotting incidents in post-vaccinated people.
Similar concerns have affected the firing of Johnson & Johnson (which will soon be deployed in the EU), but after investigations, the EMA has considered that the benefits of both shots outweigh the risks.
There are now anecdotal reports about Europeans rejecting the AstraZeneca shot, which is cheaper to produce and buy, and calling for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. CNBC has contacted Pfizer for a response to Dmitriev’s comments.
Meanwhile, there has been a dispute in the EU over the potential use of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, which was initially questioned about its clinical data and safety standards, and more recently Russia. has seen it as a geopolitical instrument that has sold the vaccine to several countries around the world, mainly to its allies.
The interim analysis of the phase 3 clinical trials of the shot, which included 20,000 participants and published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet in early February, found it to be 91.6% effective against infection. symptomatic Covid-19. The EMA is currently evaluating the clinical data before a possible authorization of the catch, which would pave the way for the vaccine to be used in the EU.
Several Eastern European countries have expressed interest or have already purchased and deployed doses of the vaccine, including Hungary, although it has not yet been approved by the EMA.
These purchases have not been without controversy: the Slovak drug agency, for example, claimed in April that the doses of Sputnik V it received were not the same as those reviewed by international experts. Russia responded by demanding that Slovakia return hundreds of thousands of doses, citing breaches of the contract, Reuters reported.
The RDIF CEO said negotiations on the supply of vaccines had taken place with Germany “and several other countries”, although he did not name them. However, it is known that France has also held talks with Russia on possible vaccine purchases.
Dmitriev said he hoped the EMA would complete the assessment of the shooting in June. “We are very clear that we can provide 50 million doses of the vaccine … from June to September, in Europe.”