THIS COUNTRY CLAIMS ITS VACCINE IS READY TO USE AND IS THE FIRST TO COMPLETE PHASE 2 OF HUMAN TRIALS! DETAILS

A COVID-19 vaccine which was developed in Russia along with the Russian Defense Ministry has completed Phase 2 trails. The first Deputy Defense Minister Ruslan Tsalikov told the media that the first domestic inoculation is ready or use. 

Reportedly, a second group of volunteers completed Phase 2 trials on Monday.  Tsalikov said in an interview with Argumenty I Fakty newspaper which was published on Tuesday that all volunteers have developed immunity from the novel coronavirus. However, he did not mention anything about the third phase that is large- scale trials or about the date when production of the vaccine might begin. 

“Tests of the vaccine are continuing,” the Interfax news service reported, citing the Health Ministry in response to the statement.

“They’re all getting ahead of themselves,” Sergei Netesov, a former executive at Vector, a state-run virology center in Novosibirsk that’s also working on an inoculation, told the media. “The third phase has not started yet, or even been announced. The reason they’re in such a rush is completely incomprehensible.”

The army is developing a vaccine in association with the state- run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow and also with Russian Direct Investment Fund. Phase 3 trials of the vaccine is likely to include thousands of people in Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It is scheduled to commence from August 3. The distribution of the vaccine is likely to begin as early as September according to RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev’s statement to the media.

According to Dmitriev, Russia could make 30 million doses domestically in 2020, and 170 million abroad, with five countries expressing interest in producing the vaccine and others willing to produce it.

“Russia, which has the fourth-most coronavirus cases in the world, has accelerated the testing process and is funding production even before the vaccine is known to work, amid a global race to find defenses against the deadly pandemic that has wreaked economic havoc. In developed economies, Phase 3 trials typically take months to run in order to better understand a drug’s effectiveness,” Hindustan Times cited in its report.