Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine may never be approved by the European Union, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Friday, also questioning China’s Sinovac vaccine.
“Sputnik … has not yet been able to obtain and may never receive EMA (European Medicines Agency) approval,” Draghi said in Brussels.
Meanwhile, “the Chinese vaccine … has proved inadequate, look at the experience in Chile,” the Italian leader added.
In its immunization campaign, Chile relied heavily on the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, and is now considering adding a third dose to boost protection against new strains.
Both Sputnik V and Sinovac vaccines are undergoing a “continuous screening” process by the EMA, a step towards official authorization.
In his comments, Draghi said there was a need to “strengthen and possibly reform the EMA” to avoid a repeat of the recent “significant confusion” over vaccines.
He referred to “certain discrepancies in statements” regarding the safety of Covid-19 vaccines between the EMA and national medical authorities.
Draghi spoke at the end of a two-day summit of the European Union, at which, according to him, the leaders held a general discussion on the state of the coronavirus.
“The pandemic is not over, we are not out of it yet,” the Italian leader said, pointing to the spread of a more transmissible version of the Delta in Britain.
In a statement, Italy’s National Institutes of Health, ISS, said the alpha variant was still the most common in the country in June, with a prevalence of 74.9%.
At the same time, the proportion of coronavirus cases associated with the Delta variant rose to 16.8 percent as of June 21 from 4.2 percent in May, according to the ISS.