DISINFO: The EMA delayed the reception of Sputnik V's application for 6 weeks for political reasons
SUMMARY
Russia sent the application for registration of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on 21 January 2021, but the latter only confirmed having received the dossier in early March.
This 6 weeks delay, between 21 January and 4 March 2021, shows what the EU's priorities for vaccination are.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about vaccines, targeting the European Medicines Agency.
On 10 February 2021 the EMA denied having received any application for the Sputnik V vaccine. EMA informed:
Clarification - EMA has to date not received an application for a rolling review or a marketing authorisation for the #COVID19 Sputnik V vaccine, despite reports stating the opposite.
The twitter account of Sputnik V from Gamaleya Research Institute’s vaccine responded with a screen capture from application 1379253 from 29 January, 2021 after an upload to the HMA. However, the screen capture is irrelevant since the Heads of Medicine Agencies is not involved in the process of reviewing vaccines.
Even Sputnik France Editorialists recognise that the application was not done before 3 March 2021. And indeed on 4 March 2021 the EMA announced that it:
has started a rolling review of Sputnik V, a #COVID19vaccine developed by Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
EMA and EU leaders have publicly stated they would welcome Sputnik V if it meets the same standards for vaccines: See related disinformation claims alleging that the head of the EMA stated that she would seek to ban Russian vaccine; that getting a Sputnik V injection is like playing Russian Roulette says a senior EMA official; that delay in approving Sputnik V is political, that the EMA will try to postpone the authorisation of Sputnik V.