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 President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia had become the
first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine,
after less than two months of human testing.
The vaccine has not yet completed its final trials. Only about 10%
of clinical trials are successful and some scientists fear Moscow
may be putting national prestige before safety.
"It seems our foreign colleagues are sensing the specific
competitive advantages of the Russian drug and are trying to express
opinions that in our opinion are completely groundless," Health
Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Wednesday.
He said the vaccine developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute would
be administered to people, including doctors, on a voluntary basis,
and would be ready soon.
"The first packages of the medical vaccine against the coronavirus
infection will be received within the next two weeks, primarily for
doctors," he said.
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Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute, said clinical trials
would be published once they have been assessed by Russia's own experts.
He said Russia plans to be able to produce 5 million doses a month by
December-January.
Kazakhstan plans to send government officials to Moscow later this month to
discuss possible deliveries of the vaccine, its presidential office said.
(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova and Andrey Kuzmin; additional reporting by Olzhas
Auyezov in Almaty; writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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