Brazil's Health Regulator To Decide On Sputnik V Import Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th April, 2021) Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency Anvisa says it will make a decision on permitting the import of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus on Monday.

The decision will be made after Anvisa holds a meeting of the Collegiate board on April 26, to assess the received requests from states and municipalities for the import of Sputnik V, the regulator said on Friday.

Earlier this month, governors of Brazil's northeastern states announced their intention to appeal to the Supreme Court if they did not receive a response from Anvisa on the delays in import approval of Russia's Sputnik V. On April 13, Supreme Judge Ricardo Lewandowski gave Anvisa until the end of this month to decide on the import of Sputnik V doses.

A team of Anvisa experts that are currently on a visit in Russia, collecting data at a Sputnik V production facility, is expected to return to Brazil this Saturday.

In August 2020, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, dubbed Sputnik V, and developed by the Gamaleya research institute. The vaccine has been approved for emergency use in 60 countries worldwide.

According to an interim analysis from a trial published in The Lancet medical journal, the vaccine has 91.6 percent efficacy. Meanwhile, the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have reported that Sputnik V has 97.6 percent efficacy.