Recently the health minister of Russia, Mikhail Murashko said that the clinical trials for a Coronavirus vaccine done on a candidate from Moscow based Institute were complete. Gamaleya Institute was recorded reporting a successful vaccine trial as per the Russian state news agency on Saturday.
Last month, Oxford University had reported an early-stage human trial of a coronavirus vaccine conducted in collaboration with AstraZeneca, with promising results. With more than 854,000 positive testing and over 14,000 deaths, Russia ranks fourth in the global list of countries with the highest number of Coronavirus cases as per the Johns Hopkins University data. Russia has completed the early stage of clinical trials and now the country is gearing up for a mass vaccination schedule in October.
This will be a part of the Phase III trials which will consolidify the effectiveness of the vaccine. The vaccination campaign which the government is aiming at will be the first attempt from a country to inoculate its people from the novel coronavirus, making it a landmark achievement for Russia.
Russian Direct Investment Fund has been involved in financially supporting Russia’s research for the coronavirus vaccine. Kirill Dimitriev, the CEO of RDIF, said, “It’s a Sputnik moment for many people who didn’t expect Russia to be the first.”
As per the reports of the World Health Organisation at present, 26 candidate vaccines around the globe are under clinical trials. The vaccine from Russia’s Gamaleya Institute is in its early state and WHO has not listed any trials from Russia that have entered second or third phase.
On Monday Russia’s Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told a news agency in Russia that the nation was looking forward to producing several million doses of the covid-19 vaccine every month, by the beginning of 2021. For this very purpose the laboratory that has been able to develop the vaccine is currently working to get regulatory approval for the drug.
On the global front, experts have shown much scepticism regarding Russia’s efforts at mass vaccination. The Telegraph newspaper on Saturday reported that Britain is most likely to reject the covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia since the country has not released appropriate scientific data regarding the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.
The US, Canada and Britain officials have levied accusations of trying to steal coronavirus vaccine data against Russia in the past month. Expressing his reservations regarding the testing in Russia and China Dr. Anthonz Fauci, White House coronavirus advisor, said on Friday, “I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone.”
