According to people familiar with the effort, dozens of Russia's business and political elite have had early access to an experimental Covid-19 vaccine, as the country is quick to be one of the first to develop an inoculation.
Senior executives of companies like aluminum giant United Co. Rusal, as well as billionaire tycoons and government officials began to receive shots fired by the state-run Gamaleya Institute in Moscow in early April, the people said. They declined to be identified since the information is not public.
The Gamaleya vaccine, funded by the Russian Direct Investment Fund and backed by the Defense Ministry, completed a phase 1 trial with military personnel last week. The institute has not released results for the study, which involved about 40 people, but has begun the next phase of testing with a larger group.
Gamaleya's press office could not immediately be reached for comment. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who recovered from Covid-19 after being hospitalized with the virus in May, said he does not know the names of people who received the institute's vaccine.
When asked in a conference call with journalists on Monday whether President Vladimir Putin had taken it, Peskov said: "It would probably not be a good idea to use an uncertified vaccine on the head of state," adding that he was unaware. other officials try.
Peskov's comments followed a statement from the Ministry of Health that only participants in the Gamaleya trials are eligible for jabs.
While the new vaccines are "safe" because they are based on proven vaccines for other diseases, their effectiveness has not yet been determined, according to Sergei Netesov, a former executive at Vector, a state virology center in Novosibirsk, Siberia, that's working, too. in an inoculation.
"Those who take it do so at their own risk," said Netesov.
Russia has reported more than 750,000 cases of Covid-19, the world's fourth largest total, and Gamaleya's program is on a faster track than many developers in the West. RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev said last week that phase 3 trials will begin on August 3 and will include thousands of people in Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the vaccine distributed nationwide since September. Western researchers typically conduct Phase 3 trials for months to better understand safety and effectiveness.
Gamaleya's candidate is a vaccine called a viral vector based on human adenovirus, a common cold virus, fused with the SARS spike protein CoV-2 to stimulate an immune response. It is similar to a vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics of China, which is already in phase 2 trials with plans for more in Canada.
Canada was among the countries, along with the United States and the United Kingdom, which last week accused Russian government-backed hackers of trying to steal secrets from their Covid-19 vaccine investigation. Russian officials deny the allegations.
From NDTV News
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