The European Union's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Friday hailed the success of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, and said he hoped it could be certified for use in the bloc.
Borrell was in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on what was the first visit of a senior EU envoy to Russia since 2017.
"It's good news for the whole of mankind because it means we will have more tools to fight the pandemic," Borrell told journalists after the talks.
He said he hoped the European Medicines Agency would certify the vaccine for use in EU member states.
Borrell added that another source of supplies would be welcome as the EU is "facing a shortage of vaccines".
Lavrov said Washington and Moscow had agreed to "see if there is room for acting together" on vaccines and that several European countries were "interested in producing the vaccine on their territory".
The domestically produced Sputnik V was approved for use in Russia last August ahead of large-scale clinical trials, sparking concern over the fast-track procedure.
Despite widespread criticism, the vaccine's developers said the jab was more than 90% effective and Russia started inoculating its citizens in December.
Lancet study
Earlier this week, the Lancet medical journal published results of Sputnik's third phase trials with data from more than 20,000 volunteers, confirming the vaccine's safety and efficacy.
Sputnik has been approved in more than 15 countries, including several ex-Soviet states, as well as Argentina, Iran and Pakistan.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which financed the vaccine, said in January that it had applied for registration of the vaccine in the EU.
Many European nations have struggled with rolling out their vaccination campaigns, and both Germany and Spain said they were open to accepting deliveries of the vaccine, while Hungary registered the jab on its own.
The British-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca in December announced clinical trials to develop a combination of vaccines with Sputnik V.
Sputnik V uses adapted strains of the adenovirus, a virus that causes the common cold, and is administered in two doses three weeks apart.
While the jab is distributed for free within Russia, its developers said they will charge less than $10 on the international market.
It can be stored at between two and eight degrees Celsius instead of temperatures far below freezing required for some other vaccines.
According to Sputnik's developers, the jab has been administered to more than two million people worldwide.