The Russian Health Ministry on Saturday said that the first batch of ‘Sputnik V’, the Coronavirus vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute has been produced, hours after the report of starting the production process.
President Vladimir Putin had announced the vaccine, the first one for Coronavirus, on Tuesday, but scientists and the WHO remain sceptical of it in the absence of a rigorous safety review. “The first batch of the novel coronavirus vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute has been produced,” the health ministry said in a statement according to Russian news agencies. Scientists around the world warn that bypassing safety protocols and trials could have disastrous consequences and the fast regulatory approvals could be the result of prioritizing ‘prestige’ over safety. Russia continues to deny the claims by saying that these criticisms are just to undermine its research. The human trial involving 2000 people had commenced earlier this week and is in the final stages.
The industrial production will start in September and around 5 million doses will be manufactured by December-January. The vaccine will be first made available to medical personnel followed by the public. Russia currently has more than 917,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases, the fourth highest in the world.
