Russian vaccine ‘Sputnik V’ against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been proven to provide a strong immune response for all of its 76 participants during the Phase I and II trials, according to results that have been published in the international medical journal, The Lancet.
Among the participants of the third phase of the trials is the daughter of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “She feels well, and the concentration of antibodies is high. The main thing is to ensure the unconditional safety and effectiveness of this vaccine in the future,” said Putin.
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However, international experts remain cautious regarding the vaccine, stating that only a large-scale clinical trial would prove if the vaccine really was effective.
“Immune response might not be directly proportional to the degree of protection—you can only find this out in large-scale trials”, explains Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London (London, UK) as per reports from The Lancet.
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Sputnik V, named after Russia’s successful Soviet-era space program, is expected to begin mass production this September 2020. The country aims to provide 500 million doses of Sputnik V per year. The vaccine is being funded by the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), the country’s sovereign wealth fund.
RDIF Chief Executive Officer Kirill Dmitriev rebuffed Sputnik V critics of questioning the safety of the vaccine.
“Instead of looking into the science behind the proven adenoviral vector-based vaccine platform Russia has developed, some international politicians and media chose to focus on politics and attempts to undermine the credibility of the Russian vaccine,” said Dmitriev.
