Russia may release Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V for civilian use next week

As vaccine candidates across the world conduct trials to develop their coronavirus vaccines, Russia's Sputnik V will most likely be released for civilian use next week, Russian news agency Tass reported deputy director for research at Gamaleya Research Institute, Denis Logunov saying.

“Its examination is to begin within days. There is a certain procedure of authorising a batch for civilian use. It must pass the quality check of the medical watchdog Roszdravnadzor. Within days, between September 10 and 13, we are to obtain permission to release a batch of the vaccine for civilian use. Respectively, from that moment on the population will begin to be vaccinated," he told a Rossiya, a russian TV news channel.

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As the Russian health ministry had said, the vaccine will be given to risk groups like medics and teachers first. The distributions of the vaccine will also be under the health ministry’s purview, the report said.

Trying to dispel the skepticism around the vaccine, which was released on August 11 without going through Phase-III of the trial, Logunov said that the the platform on the basis of which the vaccine was developed, has been well studied in China, EU and US.

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According to him, evidence suggests that the vaccine is safe which is the main prerequisite for its conditional registration. This will protect the risk groups right away without spending multiple years testing the vaccine on volunteers.

The vaccination of volunteers as part of the post-registration trial would start from September. A total of 40,000 people have already been registered for the vaccine, according to the report