(10 Mar 2021) The head of a Swiss pharmaceutical company expressed his pride on Wednesday after being selected as the first firm to produce the Russian coronavirus vaccine in the EU.
The first agreement to make the Sputnik V in any EU country was signed on Tuesday by Swiss-based Adienne Pharma & Biotech and the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
Speaking to Associated Press, Francesco Di Narto, CEO of Adienne, said that the company was still in the process of a "technology transfer" and needed to wait for approval by Italian pharmaceutical authorities before it could begin producing the vaccine.
Production is slated for Adienne's plant near Milan, but Di Naro said the announcement that Adienne would produce 10 million doses this year, launching in July, was incorrect.
"I cannot say when we will start to manufacture commercial production and we do not know today what our yield is because we do not know when we will finalize or finish the technology transfer," he said.
Adienne is in the process of acquiring technology, and then will begin producing lots of vaccine to generate data to request authorization from Italy's drug regulator, the Italian Medicines Agency, to launch production.
Di Naro said that the vaccine will belong to the Russian partners, and it will be up to them to negotiate the eventual sales.
Sputnik V has not yet been approved for use in the EU, but the body's regulator, the European Medicines Agency, or EMA, started a rolling review of the vaccine last week.
Despite skepticism about Russia’s hasty introduction of the vaccine, which was rolled out before it had completed late-stage trials, the vaccine appears to be safe and effective.
According to a study published in the Lancet, Sputnik V is 91% effective and appears to prevent inoculated individuals from becoming severely ill with COVID-19, although it’s still unclear if the vaccine can prevent the spread of the disease.
With a global shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, some experts say boosting the use of vaccines made by China and Russia could offer a quicker way to increase the global supply.
Others note that Russia’s push to export its vaccine around the world may be driven by political interests.
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