Russian vaccine: Millions of people are being added every day to the number of people infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide. Also, thousands of deaths are happening daily. At this time, the most important thing is the coronavirus vaccine. Scientists from many countries of the world are trying to develop a vaccine to prevent this deadly epidemic as soon as possible. In India too, work is progressing rapidly towards making the Corona vaccine. Meanwhile, Russia has claimed that its scientists have created the first vaccine for the coronavirus and is preparing to launch it next month.
Indeed, the University of Russia (Sechenov University), which claimed to be the first in the world to make the Corona vaccine, is now preparing to make it available to patients by August next month. In small-scale human trials, this vaccine has been found to be safe for humans. According to the report, Russia now plans to produce 30 million doses of the Corona vaccine next month. According to Reuters, Russia is set to supply the corona vaccine worldwide by September next month after its country. It will probably be the world’s first corona vaccine.
A larger Phase III trial involving several thousand people is expected to begin in August, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) head Kirill Dmitriev.
“We believe that based on the current results it will be approved in Russia in August and in some other countries in September…, making it possibly the first vaccine to be approved in the world,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s protocols said that a vaccine has to go through three phases of studies before being approved for large-scale production. Also, WHO’s draft landscape of coronavirus vaccines lists the Russian candidate vaccine study as a phase 1 trial. Perhaps, till date, no vaccine has been approved for large-scale use without undergoing the third phase of testing, which is the largest in terms of the number of participants. A candidate vaccine usually undergoes industrial production if the last phase shows clear and definitive evidence of its safety and efficacy.
According to Russian news agency Sputnik, Vadim Tarasov, director of the Institute for translational medicine and biotechnology, has said that the clinical trial of the world’s first corona vaccine has been successfully completed. He told that Sechenov, a government medical university in Moscow, conducted these trials and found that this vaccine is safe on humans. One group of people who have tried the vaccine will be discharged from the hospital on July 15 and another group on July 20.
Side-effects of the vaccine candidate
According to Elena Smolyarchuk who is the head and chief researcher at Sechenov University, some of the volunteers of the study had developed minor side-effects of the vaccine candidate including headache and fever. However, the symptoms subsided within 24 hours.
Dosing of volunteers
The first group of 18 volunteers was dosed with the vaccine candidate on June 18, while the other group of 20 volunteers was given the jab on June 23. According to the World Health Organization, a vaccine candidate needs to pass three phases of clinical trials successfully before getting the go-ahead for mass production for public use.
vaccine may be available by August 12-14
According to a report, the Russian scientists are hopeful to launch the world’s first coronavirus vaccine by mid-August as Alexander, who is the director of Gamalei center, is hopeful that the vaccine candidate will ‘enter civil circulation’ by August 12-14. He further added that mass production of the same by the drugmakers may begin by September 2020.
