Decision to turn down Sputnik V ‘won’t make a difference’ to vaccine campaign - SAMA

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) announced on Monday that it turned the down an application for the use of Sputnik V vaccine in the country.

“We’ve got enough vaccines. We have more than enough. We are running the risk of having too much in store before the expiry date, so this is not going to make an influence, it’s not going to change anything,” says SAMA’s chairperson Dr Angelique Coetzee

This comes after concerns have been raised about the safety of Adenovirus Type 5-vectored vaccines in populations at risk for HIV infection.

Coetzee says although the jab has been turned down, the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in the Russian Federation, which submitted the application will be allowed to send more data.

“Normally what SAHPRA would do, they would encourage the Institute to send in a rolling application meaning, as and when any new information is made available or comes to their attention, they need to submit it to SAHPRA."

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