Russian officials have delayed the authorisation of China's CanSino COVID-19 vaccine as they are confident that the people can be vaccinated through the homegrown doses.
The registration of the single-shot Chinese vaccine is taking so long as local authorities are prioritising Russian-developed inoculations, Bloomberg reported citing three officials familiar with the situation.
CanSino's local partner, Petrovax Pharm LLC, had earlier said that it hoped Russia would issue the first international authorization in January. However, the Health Ministry recently requested more information, the company spokeswoman said.
A government official said that there was no need for foreign doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of now.
Russia doesn't need to register a foreign vaccine because it already has several types available, said Dmitry Kulish, a biologist and professor at Moscow's Skoltech University who has worked in the pharmaceutical sector.
According to Bloomberg, Russia and China are among the countries who have aggressively marketed their vaccines abroad. However, as Western government face accusations of hoarding inoculations at the expense of poorer nations, Moscow and Beijing have also displayed signs of playing politics with the vaccines by not authorising any foreign shots.
Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya Epidemiology and Microbiology Center, was the world's first vaccine against COVID-19 and was registered by the Russian Health Ministry on August 11.
( With inputs from ANI )
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