The head of the Russian Institute behind a new COVID-19 vaccine claims that Western research institutes are trying to polish their scientists.
Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute, claimed that attempts to target veteran researchers who developed something like the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus would fail.
“Our researchers have been working at the Gamaleya Institute for 10 years,” Gintsburg told Rossiya-1 television channel, according to Russian news agency Tass.
“Every American or European university can only dream of such researchers. And they seek to entice them. But they will not be able to do it. ‘
Gintsburg provided no evidence that Western rivals were trying to lure scientists elsewhere.
His claims come after Russia became the first country to lose regulatory approval for a coronavirus vaccine.
However, the rapid approval of the new medicine has to do with skepticism from experts who doubt the safety of the drug.
The vaccine has not yet completed its definitive investigations, and has undergone only two months of human testing.
But Russian health officials on Wednesday dismissed the criticism as “unfounded.”
“It seems that our foreign colleagues are censoring the specific competitive advantages of the Russian drug and trying to express opinions that in our opinion are completely unfounded,” said Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.
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