According to a WHO document as well as a registry of the US National Library of Medicine, COVID-19 vaccine candidate tested by Russian researchers had only entered phase I trials.
“The Russian news agency, TASS had reported that “clinical trials” of a vaccine conducted by scientists at Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University had concluded, with the drug tested on two groups of
volunteers, the first of which was set to be discharged on July 15, and the second on July 20.
Vadim Tarasov, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology was also quoted by Russian news agency, Sputnik, confirming the same.
The Sputnik report noted that the vaccine had been developed by Gamelaya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, with Alexander Lukashev the director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and
Vector-Borne Diseases at the Moscow-based university stating, “it corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market.”
If, indeed, the Moscow varsity had made such a breakthrough, to say it would come as a sigh of relief for the rest of the world would be a mammoth understatement.
The entire planet has been in the vice-grip of a pandemic for over six months, with Russia itself, the fourth-worst affected nation.
However, on closer inspection, it appears that news of a commercially viable vaccine being developed by the Russian university’s researchers may be misplaced.
Just a Phase I trial? According to ClinicalTrials.gov, a registry recording all of the ongoing clinical studies, set up by the US National Library of Medicine, the Sechenov University study first began on June 18, and is
listed as an “open two-stage non-randomised Phase 1 study with the participation of healthy volunteers.”
Hmmmmm. Is this a competition for global strength, or a reality test to resovle the global threat?