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Coronavirus pandemic

WHO may recognize Sputnik V this year — official

The WHO representative in Russia noted that of all the Russian vaccines, only Sputnik V has applied for registration

© Gavriil Grigorov/TASS

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Russia's Sputnik V vaccine may be recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) this year, WHO representative in Russia Melita Vujnovic said on Thursday on the Rossiya-24 television channel.

"Ten vaccines have been included in the list of drugs recommended for emergency use, which means that they are used in public health emergencies, like now in a pandemic. Sixteen more candidates are pending, including Sputnik V," she explained.

In order to be included on the list, she said, the necessary package of documents has to be assembled. "It's not just documents on the effectiveness of the vaccine or an article in The Lancet, it's a complete overall technical document for an application for the registration of a drug in the WHO, which includes five big modules. Everything is going according to plan, and we hope that these plans will allow us to come to the end of the process this year," Vujnovic pointed out.

The WHO representative in Russia added that of all the Russian vaccines, only Sputnik V has applied for registration.

In Russia, six COVID-19 vaccines have been registered to date: Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac, Sputnik Light, EpiVacCorona-N and Sputnik M.

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