Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Successfully Tested

The clinical trials of the world’s first coronavirus vaccine on volunteers at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University has been successfully completed, Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, according to Sputnik on July 12, 2020.

“Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” Tarasov said.

Tarasov added that the first group of volunteers would be discharged on July 15, 2020, followed by the second group on July 20th.

The university began clinical trials of the vaccine produced by Russia’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology on June 18, 2020, stated Sputnik News.

The Russian COVID-19 vaccine candidate was developed by the same government labs that developed what is claimed ‘an effective vaccine against the Ebola virus, as well as a vaccine against the MERS virus,’ reported the Washington Post. 

From 2015-2019, Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology was actively targeting research and development-related vaccine work, which purportedly has been now leveraged for the novel coronavirus vaccine.

According to Alexander Lukashev, a director at Sechenov University, the objective of this stage of the study was to show the vaccine’s safety for human health, which was successfully done.

“The safety of the vaccine is confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market,” Lukashev told Sputnik.

The further vaccine development plan is already being determined by the developer’s strategy, including the complexity of the epidemiological situation with the virus and the possibility of scaling up production, Lukashev added.

“Sechenov University, in a pandemic situation acted not only as an educational institution but also as a scientific and technological research center, that is able to participate in the creation of such important and complex products as drugs ... “

“We worked with this vaccine, starting with preclinical studies and protocol development, and clinical trials are currently underway,” Tarasov noted.

The Russian COVID-19 vaccine is reported to use a weakened virus to deliver small parts of a pathogen and stimulate an immune response. And, is a vector vaccine based on adenovirus DNA, in which the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus gene is integrated. 

Adenovirus is used as a “container” to deliver the coronavirus gene to cells, start the synthesis of the envelope proteins of the new coronavirus “introducing” the immune system to a potential enemy.

Following the completion of clinical trials of the vaccine, RDIF and Alium are ready to launch mass-production for the fastest possible vaccination of Russian citizens.

UPDATE: An editorial comment submitted by TrialSiteNews stated: 'Some press is announcing that Russia is the first nation to finish human trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. How could that be when they just announced preliminary safety studies in June? The answer is that its propaganda, also known as “fake news.'

Precision Vaccinations published coronavirus vaccine development news.