"In fact, it has become a world bestseller": Murashko discussed with the head of WHO the use of the Sputnik V vaccine

The head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, had a video link with the Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Ghebreyesus.

They discussed the consideration of an application for the inclusion of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in the list of drugs approved by WHO for use in emergency situations.

This was reported by the press service of the Russian department.

During the conversation, the parties discussed measures to combat the spread of coronavirus infection, such as vaccinations and increasing the availability of medical care for the population.

In particular, Murashko said that to date millions of Russians have already received the Sputnik V drug.

He recalled that the vaccine forms a stable antibody and cellular immunity to the pathogen COVID-19 and does not have serious side effects.

According to the Russian minister, the drug "has essentially become a world bestseller."

"The parties also discussed the progress of the international organization's consideration of the application for the inclusion of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in the list of medicines approved by WHO for use in emergency situations," the statement said.

It is also noted that Gebreyesus praised Russia's efforts to introduce digital technologies into the system of medical care.

The press service drew attention to the fact that these measures significantly facilitate the interaction of the patient with the medical staff and increase the efficiency of dispensary observation.

In turn, the head of the WHO said that the key measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, taken by the organization, are social distancing and vaccination of the population.

• Reuters

• © Eduard Korniyenko

Meanwhile, the chief infectious disease specialist of the United States, Anthony Fauci, in an interview with the Greek TV channel Skai, positively assessed the data on the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

During the interview, Fauci was asked which drug he would prefer to be vaccinated - Russian or Chinese.

“The data that I know about Sputnik V is good enough.

I don't have enough information about the Chinese vaccine because they have two or three different vaccines.

So I didn’t closely monitor their performance, but the Russian data looks good, ”he said.

We will remind, according to the results of the third phase of the clinical study, "Sputnik V" demonstrated effectiveness against coronavirus at the level of 91.6%.

Also, during the tests, the ability of the drug to fully protect a person from the severe form of the disease COVID-19 was confirmed.

On the eve it became known that Sputnik V took the second place among vaccines against coronavirus infection in terms of the number of countries that approved it - permission to use the Russian drug was issued in 45 states. 

Also on Saturday it became known that the inoculation with "Sputnik V" was made by the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro.

This was reported on the page of the country's leader on Twitter.

Together with the head of state, his wife was vaccinated.

“We gave this vaccine to most of our medical staff,” Maduro said.

On March 1, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow receives many requests for the supply of vaccines against coronavirus from other countries.

“The Russian side takes a responsible position in terms of ensuring that as many vaccines as possible are delivered to different countries of the world that will experience problems with the vaccine,” said Peskov.

According to him, there are “so many” applications that the production capacity does not allow satisfying all of them.

At the same time, he noted that production turnover is growing every week.

At the same time, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier that at the moment about 2.5 million Russians have already received two components of the coronavirus vaccine.

Approximately 5 million citizens have passed the first stage of vaccination.

It should also be reminded that on March 4, the Committee on Medicines for Medical Use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) began the procedure for the successive examination of the Sputnik V registration dossier.

As reported on the agency's website, the decision to start the study was made "based on the results of laboratory and clinical trials," which demonstrated that the Sputnik V vaccine triggers the production of antibodies and immune cells against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

In addition, at the end of February, international clinical trials of the Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine, a single-component drug based on Sputnik-V, were launched.