All obstacles preventing the certification of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus by the World Health Organization (WHO) have been removed, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said at a briefing in Geneva in response to a question by TASS.
Summarizing the results of his meeting with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus where, among others, the procedure of including Sputnik V in the list of vaccines recommended by the organization for the Emergency Use Listing for fighting the coronavirus infection was discussed, the Russian health minister said: "The position of the Russian Federation on promoting and registering the Russian Sputnik V vaccine was heard. We have completely resolved all issues to date."
"The applicant company involved in certifying the Sputnik V vaccine with the WHO has to sign a number of documents, submit some additional paperwork - this is an administrative procedure after all - and this will be reviewed," he explained. "As of today, all the barriers have been removed. So we do not see today any obstacles for further work. And this was confirmed to us by the WHO Director General," the Russian health minister concluded.
Ghebreyesus thanked the Russian health minister for the visit saying the meeting was constructive. In his Twitter he emphasized that the WHO Emergency Use Listing process for the vaccines against coronavirus was discussed, among others. He thanked Russian health minister for the "visit and constructive meeting," writing "thank you" in Russian.
