Prematurely Celebrated’ World’s First Successful COVID-19 Vaccine Tested In Russia
Russia’s Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University says it has completed and successfully tested its groundbreaking clinical trials of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine with initial human trials indicating that the vaccine is safe and effective – ‘however, to an extent,’ experts have warned.
Even though the Russian vaccine has cleared the first phase of clinical trials, it has a long way ahead to be recognised as a proven vaccine against COVID-19.
Hence, celebrating it as the world’s holy grail may be premature at this moment.
The progress made in Russia with regards to finding a potential vaccine is a positive step towards responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A report released last Sunday indicated that vaccine tests from 40 individuals – volunteer group showed they were developing immunity to the coronavirus. After vaccination, all volunteers were expected to remain in isolation in a hospital for 28 days.
“The research has been completed, and it proved that the vaccine is safe. The volunteers will be discharged on July 15 and July 20,” the report was quoted.
There was, however, no further information on what phase of the clinical trials this vaccine completed. At the moment, it cannot be concluded if the vaccine has been cleared for phase one of a total of three clinical trial phases.
Meanwhile, last month, the World Health Organisation announced Oxford’s vaccine as the most advanced of all studies.
The Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-29 vaccine is currently under phase three in the Uk, Brazil and South Africa and is expected to be rolled out soon.
WHO recommended human trials are expected to go through the following phases;
Phase I trials: In this trial, the experimental vaccine is given to a few volunteer human candidates, which helps to test safety, dosage and human immune response.
Phase II trials: Here, a larger group of people—approximately 100-200—are enrolled for more testing. Further, the group is divided into the basis of age to understand how the vaccine works in different age groups. Here, researchers test the vaccine safety, immunogenicity, proposed doses, schedule of immunisation, and the way to inject it.
Phase III trials: Once it successfully reaches this stage—passing all the above hurdles—the vaccine candidate is tested in about thousands of people. In this stage, scientists compare groups of actual volunteers with individuals who receive a placebo.
Approval: In the last stage, the vaccine developer gets approval from the authorised body. The vaccine is further submitted for licensing and manufacturing. The job is now taken by a pharmaceutical company to start mass production and distribute it to the general public>chaosafrica