Russia to begin mass vaccine trials

Mass testing of Russia's first COVID-19 vaccine to gain domestic regulatory approval will involve more than 40,000 people when it starts this coming week.

"The vaccination of high-risk groups, which are the medical professionals, will begin at the same time as the post-registration clinical trials," Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF, that is backing the vaccine, said on Thursday.

"The people who will receive the vaccine will be duly monitored to ensure that all procedures are followed. After the registration, vaccination can begin, which will take place in Russia, for the most part."

He said the provision of the vaccine to medical workers would be voluntary.

The vaccine, called Sputnik V in homage to the world's first satellite launched by the then Soviet Union, has been hailed as safe and effective by Russian authorities and scientists following two months of small human trials, the results of which have not yet been made public.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the registration of the vaccine on Aug 11, in what Russia has claimed as a world first.

Denis Logunov, the deputy research director at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said on Thursday that no serious side effects have been identified among the volunteers who took part in clinical trials of Sputnik V.

"The vaccine was administered to healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 60 and showed a very good profile of safety. Not a single serious side effect was registered," Logunov said in an online conference.

According to Logunov, the most common side effects are pain in the injection spot, hypothermia in some volunteers and headache. "All these undesirable effects were considered insignificant," he said.

Dmitriev, in dismissing the concerns coming from abroad, said: "A range of countries is running an information war against the Russian vaccine."

The vaccine data will be published in an academic journal this month, he said.

"The data is being provided to the World Health Organization," Dmitriev said, adding that several countries are considering participating in a Russia-led late-stage trial, including the United Arab Emirates, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines.

Russia's state news agency Tass reported on Friday that Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard had confirmed the country will receive 2,000 doses of Sputnik V from Russia for the third stage of the clinical trials.