Russia claims world’s first COVID-19 vaccine after successful clinical trials

• Russia has become the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans.
• According to the reports, the vaccine has proven the medication’s effectiveness.
• There was, however, no further information on when this vaccine would enter the commercial production stage.
• There are at least 21 vaccines currently under key trials, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

After over six months of coronavirus outbreak, Russia has become the first nation to complete clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine on humans. According to the reports, the vaccine has proven medication’s effectiveness.

The coronavirus has infected more than 13 million people and killed over 571 thousand all over the world.

Chief researcher Elena Smolyarchuk, who heads the Center for Clinical Research on Medications at Sechenov University, told Russian news agency TASS on Sunday that the human trials for the vaccine have been completed at the university and they will be discharged soon.

“The research has been completed, and it proved that the vaccine is safe. The volunteers will be discharged on July 15 and July 20,” Smolyarchuk was quoted as saying in the report.

There was, however, no further information on when this vaccine would enter the commercial production stage.

“The safety of the vaccine has been confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market”, Alexander Lukashev, the director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical, and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University, told Sputnik.

Russia had allowed clinical trials of two forms of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. Earlier, results of the COVID-19 vaccine tests performed on a group of volunteers in Russia showed that they were developing immunity to the coronavirus. “The data obtained by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology proves that volunteers of the first and second groups are forming an immune response after injections of the vaccine against the coronavirus,” according to an earlier statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Top players running for COVID vaccine

There are at least 21 vaccines currently under key trials, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Among which the Gilead Sciences, Oxford University’s researchers and American biotech company Moderna are top players in the race of Covid-19 vaccine.

The US-based Gilead Sciences antiviral Remdesivir earlier showed that it reduces the risk of death in severely ill COVID-19 patients, but warned that rigorous clinical trials will be needed to confirm the benefit. The University of Oxford also announced last week that the advance human trial of the vaccine will involve up to 10,260 volunteers across the UK. But, according to analyst reports due to a decline in infection rate, the team at Oxford University developing a Covid-19 vaccine believe that the chances of the trial yielding “no result” is now 50%.

And other Covid-19 vaccine’s by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc’s are expected to be ready by the end of 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the German biotech firm’s chief executive officer.

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