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Coronavirus pandemic

WHO close to resuming Sputnik V recognition procedure — official

"As soon as the legal procedures are finished, we are able to restart the process," Simao said

GENEVA, October 7. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) is close to resuming the procedure of considering the bid to list Russia’s Sputnik V anti-coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products Mariangela Simao told reporters in Geneva on Thursday.

In her words, "the process was put on hold due to the lack of some legal procedures."

"As soon as the legal procedures are finished, we are able to restart the process," Simao continued.

In her words, the WHO is still waiting to obtain "complete information on the dossier which has to be provided" by the applicant - the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Besides, there are also issues regarding the finalization of inspections at Russian production facilities, the WHO assistant director-general said.

"But I’m happy to say that the process is about to be restarted," she added.

In her words, the WHO began considering the Russian request on Sputnik V earlier this year, but it was put on hold. Subsequently, discussions with the Russian government were held.

Meeting of Russian health minister and WHO chief

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko met with Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva last week. Summing up the results at a news briefing, Murashko said that all obstacles preventing the organization for adding Sputnik V to its Emergency Use Listing for fighting the coronavirus infection have been removed.

"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."

On September 27, the press service of the WHO in response to a written inquiry by TASS said that the organization was expecting additional information from Moscow to include Sputnik V in the Emergency Use Listing and a delegation of international inspectors could be sent to Russia only upon receiving and reviewing this information. Earlier this year, the WHO inspected four Russian production sites within the framework of the preliminary evaluation of Sputnik V, publishing remarks on one of them. Another inspection will be possible after the production site makes appropriate adjustments.

To date, the WHO has recommended seven vaccines against coronavirus for the Emergency Use Listing. Additionally, 13 other applications are at the various stages of the review process, including the Russian Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona vaccines.

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