European Medicines Agency Suspends Evaluation Process of Russian Sputnik Vaccine

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeon Jin-young] On the 18th (local time), Russian local media reported that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently suspending the evaluation process of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine 'Sputnik V'.

Fergus Sweeney, head of the EMA clinical research division, stated the day before that in response to a question about whether Russia's invasion of Ukraine affected the review of Sputnik V, “Currently, there is no activity taking place in the rolling review of this vaccine, and there has been no contact with Russian authorities.”

However, local media reported that it is uncertain whether the communication disruption with Russian authorities is related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Sputnik News previously reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) temporarily suspended the evaluation of Sputnik V due to technical issues such as flight restrictions and credit card usage caused by sanctions against Russia.

Sputnik V is a COVID-19 vaccine developed in Russia, which was the first in the world to receive emergency use authorization within Russia in August 2020.

EMA began the rolling review of this vaccine a year ago. The rolling review is a procedure to expedite the evaluation of promising clinical trial medicines or vaccines during public health emergencies.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.