Russia to register first COVID-19 vaccine next week
Amid the soaring number of coronavirus cases worldwide, Russia is all set to register world's first COVID-19 vaccine next week.
Amid the soaring number of coronavirus cases worldwide, Russia is all set to register world's first COVID-19 vaccine next week.
The third stage trial of the vaccine jointly developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian Defence Ministry is currently underway and will be registered on August 12.
Russia’s Deputy Health Minister Oleg Gridnev on Friday confirmed the news and asserted that "This is the testing part and is extremely important. We have to understand that the vaccine itself must be safe." He added that once the vaccine is launched medical professionals and senior citizens will be the first to get vaccinated.
After the registration process, the vaccine will be reportedly tested on about 1,600 people to ensure its safety and effectiveness.
The Russian vaccine
Last week, Russia's Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the mass vaccination in the country will kick start in October and all the expenses will be covered from the state funds.
The trial of the Russian vaccine is currently underway at two centres - Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital and the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University.
As per a report, all the corona positive people who joined the trail for the vaccine developed immunity against the contagious virus.
Apart from the vaccine formulated by the Gamaleya Research Institute, Russia's Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology is also in the race to develop a potential vaccine for coronavirus.
The WHO statement on Russian Vaccine
Pointing at the severity of the current situation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has stressed that all vaccine candidates must go through the full stages of testing before rolling out any COVID-19 vaccine.
"Any vaccine for this purpose should be, of course, going through all the various trials and tests before being licenced for roll-out," said WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier.
Status of other vaccines
Total of three potential coronavirus vaccine candidates have proceeded to the critical Phase III trials. They are expected to launch a prototype before 2020.
Pfizer-BioNTech's formulated mRNA vaccine has now entered the crucial phase testing of its vaccine. The result of the vaccine was quite impressive in the early pre-clinical trials.
UK-based Oxford University is also in the race to give the world an effective and safe COVID vaccine. As per a report, the trial of the vaccine developed by Oxford University in partnership with pharma maker AstraZeneca is going on well and researchers are seeing results as they had expected.
The third candidate to recently enter the late-stage trials is Novavax Inc.
