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The WHO and its partners included nine experimental vaccines against the COVID-19 coronavirus infection in the joint COVAX research and funding mechanism. This initiative allows countries to invest in a range of potential vaccines and ensure early access to approved products, but at the same time, theoretically, it guarantees assistance to developing countries that lack the funds to purchase vaccines.
“We currently do not have enough information to make an evaluation of the vaccine developed in Russia,” said Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director general.
“We are currently in talks with Russia to get more information and to understand the status of this product, what tests have been done and what the next steps could be,” he said.
When Russia announced Tuesday that it had developed the first vaccine to provide “sustainable immunity” to the new coronavirus, the news generated skepticism about the drug’s efficacy as the second global wave of disease concerns grew.
President Vladimir Putin said the vaccines are safe and have been tested on one of his daughters. The new vaccine was called Sputnik, the first artificial satellite launched by the former Soviet Union.
“I know that it works quite effectively, forming sustainable immunity,” Putin said of the drug, developed at the Gamalea National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in collaboration with the Defense Ministry.
However, the Russian Ministry of Health has indicated that clinical trials of the vaccine have not yet been completed, nor the final phase of the investigation, in which more than 2,000 people will participate. people, it will only start on Wednesday.
Western scientists have previously raised concerns about the pace of vaccine development in Russia and assumed that Russian researchers were not following established guidelines.
WHO Geneva spokesman Tarik Yasharevich said the United Nations had “close contacts” with Russian health officials, but it was too early to express its position on the vaccine.
“A preliminary evaluation of any vaccine involves a careful evaluation of all the necessary safety and efficacy data,” he said.
A spokesman for the German Ministry of Health told the RND newspaper group that “no data are known on the quality, efficacy and safety of the Russian vaccine.” He added that “patient safety is paramount.”
Russia hopes to begin mass production of the vaccine in September and plans to begin vaccinating medical personnel immediately.
Kirill Dmitryev, director of Russia’s direct investment fund that finances the vaccine project, said the doubts about the drug were part of a “carefully organized and coordinated media attack” aimed at “discrediting” the country.
According to him, “preliminary orders for more than 1 billion doses of this vaccine have been received from 20 countries.”
There is an urgent need to develop an effective vaccine against the coronavirus as the world prepares for new outbreaks and countries try to restore their economies, paralyzed by months of quarantine.
Indonesia on Tuesday announced the launch of phase III clinical trials in humans by Chinese company Sinovac Biotech.
Phase III studies involve larger numbers of people and are generally the last step before a drug is licensed.
Sinovac CoronaVac has already been tested with 9,000 Brazilian medical personnel.
WHO says 165 coronavirus vaccines are under development worldwide, six of which have already reached phase III.
However, WHO’s head of emergencies Michael Ryan warned that the development of the vaccine would not mean that the COVID-19 threat would disappear.
“We have very effective vaccines against polio and measles, but we are still fighting to eradicate these diseases,” he said.
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