Russia will begin a phase 3 trial of its Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine on 40,000 volunteers this week, Russia’s state news agency Tass announced Friday.
The controversial vaccine developed at Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute was approved for use in Russia on Aug. 11 although it had yet to enter a late-stage trial. Healthcare workers and teachers in Russia will be able to get the vaccine while the trial is going on.
The month-long international study will enroll volunteers in Russia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, and maybe Brazil and India.
Brief information about Sputnik vaccine:
The “Sputnik V” is a vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in coordination with the Russian defence ministry. It is based on a proven vaccine against adenovirus – the common cold.
The vaccine is expected to provide immunity from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, for up to two years, according to the Russian health ministry. But the results of the limited trials have yet to be made public.
The vaccine is administered in two doses and consists of two serotypes of human adenovirus, each carrying an S-antigen of the new coronavirus, which enter human cells and produce an immune response.
It is a so-called viral vector vaccine, meaning it employs another virus to carry the DNA encoding of the needed immune response into cells.
The platform used for the vaccine was developed by Russian scientists over 20 years and had formed the basis for several vaccines in the past, including those against Ebola.
Gamaleya’s vaccine is based on similar technology to the coronavirus vaccine prototype developed by CanSino, a Chinese vaccine-making company.
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