Russia will test a nasal spray form of the Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 among adult volunteers, according to a state document published on Oct. 12, as the country struggles to rein in rising numbers of infections and deaths.
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Oct. 8 that the health agency was “near” to resolving issues on Russia’s Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, without giving a date for a potential emergency use listing.
The Russian health ministry’s ethical committee declined to approve clinical trials in Russia combining a British shot from AstraZeneca and Oxford University with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, an AstraZeneca official told Reuters on May 28.
ReutersRussia’s Supreme Court on May 27 rejected a lawsuit from Gilead Sciences that challenged a Russian government decision to let a Russian firm develop and market the anti-Covid-19 drug remdesivir without the U.S. company ‘s consent.
Covid-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally, more than double what official numbers show, according to an analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. IHME found that Covid-19 deaths are significantly underreported in almost every country.
Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against Covid-19 for animals, the country’s agriculture safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on March 31.
Russia completed clinical trials for the one-shot “Sputnik-Light” version of its Covid-19 vaccine, the health minister said on state television on March 22.
The United States identified three online publications directed by Russia’s intelligence services that it says are seeking to undermine Covid-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna, a State Department spokeswoman said.
Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said on March 1.
After months of touting its efficacy to the western world, the efficacy of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine was validated in a peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet.
