Sputnik V unlikely to be authorised for rollout in EU before end June

Portugal’s vaccine task force coordinator Henrique Gouveia e Melo has said he would consider using the Russian vaccine against Covid-19 as long as it was duly approved by the requisite European authorities. This now looks unlikely before the end of June. France’s secretary of state for European Affairs Clément Baune has told the French Senate today that the first phase of evaluation will be completed by mid-June, at which point EMA (the European Medicines Authority) will have to give its approval, which could take “some weeks”. Say reports, Baune believes by then the EU will actually have ‘many more doses of vaccine (from other laboratories)’ at its disposal, so that the need for Sputnik V will actually be “much less urgent”.