MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/: Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine has been capable of overcoming political opposition to its use around the world, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Belov told TASS on Saturday.
"Sputnik V has proved its effectiveness. It is not interior to any other leading vaccines. There is an understanding that all the vaccines have not gone through all the stages, but Sputnik V was eventually recognized as a worthy opponent to all the other vaccines that are being purchased," he said.
"It is understandable that the Russian producers had initially held much weaker positions for various reasons. But now, it is a question of lobbyism, including political lobbyism," he said.
According to Belov, the first blows on the wall of aversion in the West were delivered with agreements with Hungary and positive feedback from Germany. He added that Russia should expect the European Medicines Agency’s approval to strike a corresponding deal.
"Sputnik V is marching around the planet. Whether the EU will approve Sputnik V or not is a matter of time, because as far as I can see, all the states are facing shortages," the expert stressed
Earlier, The Lancet, a medical journal, published the results of the third phase of Sputnik V clinical tests. The vaccine has proved to be among the world’s safest and most efficient. Thus, its efficacy is estimated at 91.6% and 91.8% among volunteers older than 60. Ninety-eight percent of volunteers developed antibodies to the coronavirus. All developed cell-mediated immunity.
Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, the UAE, Iran, Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Lebanon, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Republika Srpska and Myanmar have already approved the use of Sputnik V vaccine.
Russia was the first country to register its vaccine against the novel coronavirus on August 11, 2020. The Sputnik V vaccine was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry. Sputnik V is a vaccine on a human adenoviral vector-based platform. The two-part vaccine is administered in two doses.
