Italy has just made an agreement with Russia and plans to produce the Sputnik V vaccine on its territory from July. This makes Italy the first country in Europe to have an agreement on the production of the Sputnik V vaccine within the EU. Let’s do a check in.
First agreement in Europe for the Russian vaccine
Although the Russian vaccine Sputnik V demonstrated its effectiveness (with a rate of 91.6% against symptomatic forms of the disease) when the results were published in the specialist journal The Lancet, Europe has still not authorized its deployment. While the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has yet to give its opinion on the matter, Italy has just announced that an agreement has been reached. Indeed, the Italo-Russian Chamber of Commerce announced this Tuesday, March 9, 2021 that the Russian vaccine Sputnik V will be produced in Italy from July. This is the first European agreement for the production on EU territory of the Sputnik V vaccine.
For now, the Russian vaccine is validated in 46 countries. And despite the wait for an authorization from Europe, the Russian vaccine is still deployed in Hungary where part of the population has already been administered a dose of the vaccine. At the same time, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have also already ordered from Russia.
10 million doses are planned for production
Asked about the agreement between Russia and Italy, Stefano Maggi, press advisor to the president of the Chamber of Commerce Vincenzo Trani said that “ The vaccine will be produced from July 2021 at the factories of the Italian-Swiss pharmaceutical company Adienne, in Lombardy, in Caponago near Monza “. He also specified that “ten million doses will be produced between July 1 and January 1, 2022”.
In total, the Russian authorities have said they are ready to provide vaccines to 50 million Europeans from June. In the event that the Sputnik V vaccine is still not authorized by the European Union by July 1, 2021, it is expected that the doses produced will be bought back by the Russian sovereign wealth fund in order to be redistributed in the countries and territories where it is already authorized.
