Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine gets local emergency use authorisation
− discussions being finalised for doses
-Min. Anthony
Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD), has granted emergency use authorisation of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in Guyana.
Minister Anthony made this disclosure during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update.
“We have been in discussion with the Russian manufacturer for quite some weeks now and I have indicated this before because when we reviewed, the data from the vaccines, we saw that the vaccines is about 90.6 per cent efficacious.
Of vaccines so far, this one has very high efficacy, and so we have started discussion with them in order to get some of these vaccines to Guyana. Those discussions have advanced and we have, through our Food and Drug Administration here, issued an emergency use authorisation for these vaccines,” Minister Anthony said.
An emergency use authorisation in this case, is an approval granted by the country’s Food and Drug Department. Locally, this body falls within the purview of the Ministry of Health.
Minister Anthony said to grant emergency use authorisation to Russia’s Sputnik V, the Government looked at authorisation given by stringent regulatory authorities.
“We looked at three main ways in which we can do that, the first is if the vaccine has been approved by what is called a stringent regulatory authority. So, when we talk about stringent regulatory authorities we’re talking about the FDA in the United States, Canada, in the UK, Australia, and in Europe, they have a similar body but it’s named differently, not FDA.
So, once it has been approved by these authorities, then we would use the principle of reciprocity to be able to approve it in Guyana. Another way of approving these vaccines is if they’ve been approved by the World Health Organisation,” he said.
Minister Anthony says GA-FDD has also issued emergency use authorisation in Guyana for the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. The Chinese Government is donating 20,000 of its vaccines to Guyana.
Guyana is also set to receive 104,000 vaccines free of cost through the COVAX mechanism, and another 149,000 doses through a purchase agreement under the CARICOM-African Union arrangement.