Russia plans to register a coronavirus vaccine by August 10-12, clearing the way for what its backers say would be the world’s first official approval of inoculation against the epidemic.
The drug, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, may be approved for civilian use within three to seven days of registration by regulators, according to a person familiar with the process, who pleaded anonymity because the information isn’t public.
This is the same vaccine that was, earlier this month, reported to have successfully completed human trials. Actually, at that time, in the second week of July, this candidate vaccine had only completed phase-I human trials. Its phase-II trials began on July 13, according to a report in TASS news agency at that time.
A vaccine is usually not approved for public use till it completes three phases of human trials, each of which, in normal circumstances, can run for several months.
The drug developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Direct Investment Fund may be approved for civilian use within three to seven days of registration by regulators, according to a source. The vaccine is expected to get conditional registration in August, meaning it will still need to conduct trials on another 1,600 people, deputy PM Tatyana Golikova said in a meeting of officials on Wednesday. “Production should begin in September.”
