They were announced Tuesday by Vladimir Putin. Russia said on Saturday it had produced its first vaccines against the coronavirus. Vaccines viewed with skepticism by the rest of the world.
"The first batch of the new vaccine against the coronavirus of the Gamaleia Research Center has been produced," the Russian health ministry said in a statement, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The Russian president said Tuesday that a first vaccine "quite effective" had been registered in Russia by this research center in epidemiology and microbiology, in Moscow, in partnership with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: Putin says Russia has developed vaccine
Vladimir Poutine had even claimed that one of his daughters had been inoculated with the vaccine, named “Sputnik V” (V for vaccine), in reference to the Soviet satellite, the first spacecraft put into orbit in 1957, during the Cold War.
Western researchers have nevertheless cast doubts on the announcement, with some even arguing that a vaccine developed in a rush could be dangerous, while the final phase of trials only began this week.
Industrial production will start in September
The director of the Gamaleïa Center, Alexander Guintsbourg, told TASS on Saturday that the volunteers taking part in the last phase of the test would receive two inoculations.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
The Russian sovereign wealth fund involved in the development of the vaccine said that industrial production was due to start in September and that more than a billion doses had been pre-ordered by 20 foreign countries.
Since the start of research, the Gamaleïa Institute has however been accused of breaking with the usual protocols to speed up the scientific process. And so far, Russia has not published a detailed study to independently verify its results.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said this week that the vaccine would be available first to caregivers and then to all Russian volunteers. With more than 917,000 officially confirmed cases, Russia is currently the fourth most affected country in the world by the epidemic, after the United States, Brazil and India.
