Idafe Martin
03/04/2021 11:01
Clarín.com
World
Updated 03/04/2021 11:01
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced on Thursday that it
began the examination
to authorize the use of the Russian vaccine
Sputnik V
in Europe.
The announcement is a twist on what the European Commission had said in recent months.
Brussels even
sowed doubts
about Sputnik V. On February 18, the president of the executive arm of the European Union, Úrsula Von der Leyen, went so far as to say: “We still wonder why Russia is theoretically offering millions and millions of doses while not making sufficient progress in vaccinating its own population ”.
Europeans keep saying in public that they wo
n't need
the Russian vaccine.
After the authorizations of Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca, Brussels now expects that in three or a maximum of four weeks the EMA will approve the use of the vaccine from the Belgian laboratory
Janssen
, which will be produced by the American multinational Johnson & Johnson.
This vaccine
should change the situation
in Europe because it has obvious advantages, such as that it can be kept for months in a simple freezer or that it only needs one dose.
v 1.5
Vaccination in the world
Total doses of vaccines administered per 100 people
Tap to explore the data
Source:
OWID
Infographic:
Clarín
But the ideas of Brussels were altered in recent weeks because Hungary - and soon Slovakia - began to administer doses of Sputnik V. to its population, so the EMA has been forced to study the data on the Russian vaccine to authorize it for the European market.
Moscow reacted on Thursday, ensuring that it can send
50 million doses
to Europe in the second half of this year.
The EMA statement says that it has begun "a continuous study of Sputnik V. a vaccine against covid-19 developed by the Russian national center Gamaleya for epidemiology and microbiology" and that "it will be evaluated according to European standards of efficacy, safety and quality ”.
A study published by the scientific journal 'The Lancet' claimed that Sputnik V has
an efficiency of 92%
, at the level of that of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which gave 93%.
They are the two vaccines against COVID-19 that
gave the
best
efficacy
data
in the trials.
Terms
Russia
did not ask the EMA
to authorize its vaccine, but rather the German laboratory R-Pharm Germany GmbH, which has an agreement with Russia to produce its vaccine on European territory.
For a vaccine to be administered to Europeans it must be produced
in a European plant
or, if not, the plant in a third country must be willing to receive European inspectors.
The Russian vaccine
generates anger
in Europe.
The need to increase the supply of vaccines prompted several European governments to look to Moscow, although no European country is being able to administer all the vaccines it receives from pharmaceutical companies that have signed contracts with the European Commission.
Vials with the Russian vaccine, in a hospital in Budapest.
Photo: AFP
Other countries, especially the Baltics, see the Russian vaccine as
a political weapon of Moscow
and that Europe should discard it.
Donald Tusk, former Polish Prime Minister, former President of the European Council and current leader of the European Christian Democratic parties, warned on Wednesday against the use of Sputnik V.
The EMA authorization, for which
there is no date
, is only the first part of a process that has as a second part
a commercial authorization
issued by the European Commission.
The authorization of Sputnik V has another derivative.
The European Commission is preparing the technical and legal details to launch, before next European summer, some type of
digital vaccination certificate
that serves as a safe-conduct so that already vaccinated people can travel without being subjected to public health restrictions.
That would make tourism, a key sector that moves more than 10% of European GDP, reactivate.
In order for people vaccinated with Sputnik V to receive this certificate, the vaccine must be approved for use in Europe.
Brussels, special
ap
