Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine to Be Produced in Italy amid Approval Row with EMA

Russia is pushing ahead with plans to make its Covid-19 vaccine in Europe, securing a deal to produce the Sputnik V shot in Italy and discussing production in Germany and France.

Adienne Pharma & Biotech SA signed an agreement to manufacture the vaccine at its production site in the Milan region, founder and President Antonio Francesco Di Naro told Bloomberg in an interview

The Lugano, Switzerland-based company's deal with the Russian Direct Investment Fund is the first European production agreement for the vaccine. While Russia was first to approve a shot for the general public and promoted it as a way to help end the pandemic globally, it has been slower than some rivals to scale up output.

Sputnik is more complicated to manufacture than some other vaccines because it's based on two different adenoviruses for its two doses. Developers taking a similar approach, such as the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc, have used only one virus.

The vaccine is under review by authorities in the European Union, which has struggled to ramp up inoculations amid a lack of supply. The sluggish rollout has prodded some countries to consider their own purchasing deals in a challenge to the bloc's solidarity.

"There are many Italian regions which are enthusiastic about having Sputnik, they would also want to produce it," Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of RDIF, a sovereign wealth fund, told Italian Rai3 television on Sunday. "We have a partnership in Germany. We're talking to several French companies."

Sputnik V's developers have had contact with German vaccine maker IDT Biologika GmbH, according to IDT spokesman Ulrich Gartner, who confirmed a report by German broadcaster MDR. He said that the company cannot comment on the...