Doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 produced in Italy by Swiss-based pharmaceutical company Adienne Pharma & Biotech will not be available on the market until at least late 2021, the TASS news agency reported on Friday.
Moscow's RDIF sovereign wealth fund signed an agreement with Adienne earlier this week that will need approval from Italian regulators before production can be launched. It said it had also struck deals with production facilities in Spain, France and Germany.
The production agreements are the latest indication that some companies could press ahead with plans without waiting for the European Union's regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), to grant its approval to Sputnik V.
"The company will not produce batches for sale until late 2021," TASS cited Antonio Francesco Di Naro, president of Lugano-based Adienne, as saying.
Di Naro said the company still needed to complete the process of exchanging technology to produce Sputnik V, test its production, and transfer data to national regulators before the shot could go on sale.
(This story amends paragraph 2 to show date of signing not known)
(Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Catherine Evans)
