By Katya Golubkova and Polina Nikolskaya
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) -Russia expects the World Health Organization (WHO) to approve the Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus within two months, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) which markets the vaccine, told Reuters.
He said the European Medicines Agency (EMA) which is also reviewing Sputnik V “was provided with all basic existing information, there is no critical remarks for now at all”.
Dmitriev did not say when EMA could make its decision, redirecting questions to the agency and said that WHO did not have significant critical remarks either, based on a couple of inspections. Dmitriev declined to specify which production sites were visited during the review.
“We see that inspectors are keeping a professional attitude … there are no significant critical remarks, at least for now.”
“If we were not absolutely sure of the transparency of the process, we would not have invited anybody,” he said.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova and Polina Nikolskaya; additional reporting by Polina Ivanovaediting by Jason Neely and David Evans)
