India to gain as Germany gives green signal to Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine

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<strong>Germany’s willingness to go ahead with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine comes as a major step forward in the world’s war against the deadly coronavirus that jumped species to inflict death and suffering on humankind. At a time when there is an acute shortage of vaccines, geopolitics cannot be used to deny vast populations a proven vaccine needed to save lives and livelihoods.</strong></p>
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As many as five Indian pharmaceutical firms including Dr Reddy’s Labs have also signed agreements with Russia to roll out Sputnik V, which will go a long way in bridging the current deficit in vaccines worldwide and speeding up the inoculation drive against the relentless surge in Covid-19 cases.  India as the largest vaccine maker in the world has already supplied 76 countries with shots of the two vaccines that it is currently producing– AstraZeneca-Oxford and Bharat Bitoech’s homegrown Covaxin. The tie-up with Russia will help to step up this effort and meet the huge demand.<br />
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The German government said on Friday that it would be open to using the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine once it had been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).<br />
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Last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel herself directly referred to Sputnik jabs and said Germany “should use any vaccine that has been approved” by the EMA.<br />
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A spokesman for Germany’s health ministry echoed the same sentiment on Friday, saying that “all vaccines are welcome if they have been approved by the EMA.”<br />
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The EMA this month launched a rolling review of Sputnik V, in a key step required for its approval as the first non-Western coronavirus vaccine to be used across the 27-nation bloc.<br />
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“This is a good vaccine that will probably also be approved in the EU at some point. The Russian researchers are very experienced with vaccines. Sputnik V is cleverly built,” Thomas Mertens, head of Germany’s vaccine commission Stiko, told the Rheinische Post on Tuesday.<br />
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However, Sputnik has faced criticism in Western countries, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Drian has accused both Russia and China on Friday of using their vaccines to gain influence abroad.<br />
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“In terms of how it is managed, it (the Sputnik V vaccine) is more a means of propaganda and aggressive diplomacy than a means of solidarity and health aid,” Le Drian told France Info radio.<br />
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Moscow hit back with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying :  “We absolutely disagree with the fact that Russia and China are using the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines as tools of influence.”<br />
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Russia registered Sputnik V in August, ahead of large-scale clinical trials, which had raised concerns among many experts over the fast-track process.<br />
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However, later reviews have shown the vaccine to be both safe and effective in preventing Covid-19. Over 3.5 million people in Russia have already received both doses of the Sputnik V vaccine.<br />
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Leading British medical journal The Lancet announced on Tuesday that the Sputnik jab was 91.6 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 cases, which laid to rest much of the international scepticism.<br />
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The green signal from Germany also comes at a time when Europe has fallen behind in its inoculation drive and there is a major controversy raging on the issue with EU blaming Britain for the shortfall in supplies of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. The 27-nation bloc has accused Britain of cornering most of the shots in what is being termed as “vaccine nationalism.”<br />
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The EU has also recently temporarily suspended the use of the vaccine saying that it was not safe and resumed only after the EMA gave the go-ahead for the shots. The move was also attributed to political reasons in the wake of the strained ties between the EU and Britain.</p>
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