Russia registers “1st” coronavirus vaccine
Moscow – Russia is the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine after less than two months of testing on humans.
Officials dubbed the vaccine “Sputnik V”, named after the Soviet-era satellite that was the first launched into space.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, is offering a lasting immunity from the deadly coronavirus.
“As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world.”
Putin emphasised that the vaccine underwent the necessary checks, adding that one of his daughter has received the shot and is feeling well.
The phase three of the clinical trials for the vaccine are set to begin on Wednesday. Countries including the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia are taking part in those trials.
No data has yet been published by the researchers and the long-term effects and safety of this possible vaccine currently remain unclear.
Skepticism about the Russia’s coronavirus vaccine
Russian officials said that 100% of volunteers developed immunity on the 21st day after receiving the first dose and that their immunity doubled after the second injection.
However, there has been international skepticism that Russia has developed an effective and safe vaccine. One of whom is top infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci.
“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone. Because claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing is, I think, problematic at best.”
Other experts said they were concerned that not enough was known about Russia’s research.
“There seems to be rather little detail thus far on Russian (vaccine) candidates. The collateral damage from release of any vaccine that was less than safe and effective could exacerbate our current problems insurmountably.” said Danny Altmann, a professor of Immunology at Imperial College London.
Britain and Canada last month has accused Russia of using hackers to steal vaccine research from Western laboratories.
Meanwhile, a World Health Organisation (WHO) spokesman told Reuters that the WHO is in “close contact” with Russian health authorities about the “possible pre-qualification process for a Covid-19 candidate vaccine which requires rigorous review.”
Last July, the World Health Organization said that there were 26 candidate vaccines in the clinical evaluation stage, including the one registered in Russia that was developed by the Gamaleya Scientific Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
Pre-orders of 1 Billion doses
Russia has already received pre-orders for 1 billion doses of the from over 20 countries.
“We’ve seen considerable interest in the Russian vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute from abroad,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
Gamaleya’s vaccine is based on the adenovirus, a similar technology to the coronavirus vaccine prototype developed by China’s CanSino. It employs another virus to carry the DNA encoding of the needed immune response into cells.
Dmitriev added that along with foreign partners Russia is ready to manufacture 500 million doses of vaccine per year in five countries.
Industrial production is expected to start from September.
The RDIF launched a dedicated site for the vaccine: https://sputnikvaccine.com/