Russia first to approve vaccine for coronavirus
Print Edition
PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine, as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide topped 20 million.
“This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered” in Russia, Putin said during a televised video conference call with government ministers.
He said the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya institute, has undergone proper testing and is safe.
“I know that it is quite effective, that it gives sustainable immunity,” he said.
The Russian leader added that one of his two adult daughters has received two shots of the vaccine.
Putin said he hoped that the mass production of the vaccine registered in Russia should begin in the near future, and vaccination will be available to everyone in the country voluntarily.
Tatyana Golikova, a deputy prime minister in charge of health issues, said officials hoped that vaccinations of medical staff could begin soon. “We really hope that the vaccine can be produced in September, or even at the end of August or beginning of September, and the first category to be vaccinated will be medical personnel,” she was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Professor Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya institute, said that vaccination will start while the Phase 3 trials continue. He said that initially there will be only enough doses to conduct vaccination in 10-15 of Russia’s 85 regions, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russian officials have said that large-scale production of the vaccine will start in September, and mass vaccination may will begin in October. The Health Ministry said that the vaccine is expected to provide immunity from the coronavirus for up to two years.
Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, hailed the development as a historic “Sputnik moment,” comparable to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik 1, the world’s first satellite. The vaccine will be marketed under the name “Sputnik V” on foreign markets, he said.
Dmitriev said Russia had already received foreign requests for 1 billion doses. International agreements had been secured to produce 500 million doses annually, with the vaccine also expected to be produced in Brazil.
Russia has reported more than 890,000 cases, the fourth-most in the world after the United States, Brazil and India, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally that also showed total confirmed cases globally surpassing 20 million. It took six months or so to get to 10 million cases. It took just over six weeks for that number to double.
More than 100 possible vaccines are being developed around the world to try to stop the COVID-19 pandemic. At least four are in final Phase 3 human trials, according to WHO data. The vaccine developed by Russia is a viral vector vaccine, meaning it employs another virus to carry the DNA encoding of the needed immune response into cells.
Gamaleya’s vaccine is based on the adenovirus, a similar technology to the coronavirus vaccine prototype developed by China’s CanSino.
Human studies started June 17 among 76 volunteers. Half were injected with a vaccine in liquid form and the other half with a vaccine that came as soluble powder.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
