Russian vaccine: what is the context of the laboratory that develops it

The center manages one of the largest virus collections in the world and has its own facilities for vaccine development, says the website of the National Epidemiology and Microbiology Center of Gamaleya.

The Sputnik V vaccine is now manufactured here and handles requests for over 1.2 billion doses from more than 50 countries.

However, mistrust of the Russian vaccine remains in place in sectors that argue that studies of safety and efficiency.

“In the UK, we don’t talk about russian vaccine because phase 3 would not end until the end of February or March ”, explains Argentinian pediatrician living in the United Kingdom, Marta Cohen.

// Sputnik V vaccine: Russia reaffirms that it does not produce adverse effects in the elderly

So far, the Russian variant has successfully passed phases 1 and 2 and its results have been published in The Lancet, a prestigious British magazine.

Data collected so far from phase 3 of the clinical trial shows more than 95% efficacy against COVID-19, but the lab admits it has not received samples of the new strain of the coronavirus detected in the UK so far. However, they say that inoculation protects against this variant, as it only affects a small spot on the surface of the viral protein.

“The results of studies in the elderly will be published soon, there are no side effects,” center director Alexandr Guintsburg said in statements to the Sputnik news agency.

The vaccine, intended for distribution in overseas markets, will be produced by international partners of RDIF (Russian sovereign wealth fund. F) in India, Brazil, China, South Korea and other countries.

Context

• The Gamaleya Center developed and successfully registered, in 2015, two vaccines against the Ebola virus (and a third vaccine was registered in 2020), using the adenoviral vector platform.
• It was founded in 1891 as a private laboratory.
• Since 1949, it bears the name of Nikolay Gamaleya, pioneer of microbiological research in Russia. Gamaleya studied in the laboratory of the French biologist Louis Pasteur, in Paris and in 1886 opened in Russia, the second point of vaccination against rabies in the world.
• Since 1997, the place has been run by Alexander Gintsburg, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Argentina on Wednesday approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine as part of an emergency procedure for use in our country. It did so by a resolution of the Ministry of Health of the Nation, headed by Ginés González García, and after a recommendation from ANMAT.