So far, Russia has not published a detailed study of the results of its trials to establish the effectiveness of the products it says it has developed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told a press conference on Tuesday August 11 that Russia had developed the “first” vaccine against coronavirus. Regulatory approval for development has been given by the Russian Ministry of Health to the Nikolai Gamaleia Institute, a state-run epidemiology and microbiology research center in Moscow.
The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of health issues, Tatiana Golikova, said she hoped to start in the coming weeks the vaccination of medical personnel, then teachers. The rest of the population should be vaccinated from its entry into circulation on January 1, 2021, according to the National Medicines Register of the Ministry of Health, consulted by Russian news agencies.
The vaccine was dubbed “Sputnik V” (V for vaccine), in reference to the Soviet satellite, the first spacecraft put into orbit, said the president of the Russian sovereign wealth fund involved in its development, Kirill Dmitriev. “More than a billion doses” have been pre-ordered by 20 foreign countries, said Dmitriev, adding that phase 3 of the trials began on Wednesday.
Clinical trials still in progress!
This authorization, which comes after less than two months of clinical trials in humans, paves the way for the large-scale use of this vaccine in the Russian population, although the final phases of clinical trials are continuing to determine its safety and effectiveness. And this, contrary to the words of the Russian president, who declared during his press conference: “I know that it is very effective, that it allows to develop a strong immunity and, I repeat it, it passed all the necessary tests.” Mr. Putin also claimed that the vaccine was given to one of his daughters.
The Ministry of Health, for its part, said that “clinical trials on several thousand people would continue”, but that the double inoculation of the vaccine “allows to form a long immunity”, which can last “two years”.
Tests on scientists!
So far, Russia has not released a detailed study of the results of its trials to establish the effectiveness of the products it says it has developed. At the beginning of August, when Russia announced that its vaccine was almost ready, the WHO was doubtful, recalling that any pharmaceutical product must “be subjected to all the different trials and tests before being approved for deployment” and stressing the importance of adhering to “clear guidelines and guidelines” in vaccine development.
Scientists at the Gamaleïa center were criticized in May for having personally injected their prototype vaccine, a method that breaks with the usual protocols intended to speed up the scientific process as much as possible.
Hacking attempts!
This vaccine is viral vector, that is, it uses another virus as a carrier that has been transformed and adapted to fight Covid-19. It uses adenovirus, a technology also chosen by the University of Oxford.
In mid-July, the British, Canadian and American intelligence services had also accused their Russian counterparts of having tried to hack several research centers working on vaccines against Covid-19 in these three countries.
A second vaccine is being designed at the Vektor State Research Center (Siberia) and is also undergoing clinical trials to be completed in September.
