Russia’s COVID-19 Vaccine Shows Antibody Response In All Participants

Russia is in the news for agreeing to a COVID-19 vaccine whose long-term effectiveness is being questioned by various experts. As per a recent development, the vaccine generated an antibody response in 100% of participants during its early-stage trials, according to the medical journal The Lancet. Moscow lauds this feat as the answer to all the questions raised about its vaccine.

The vaccine, Sputnik-V, is named after Russia's first satellite and was developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute. It underwent two pilot-phase trials in June-July, each involving 38 participants; the vaccine is inoculated in two doses.

“The two 42-day trials — including 38 healthy adults each — did not find any serious adverse effects among participants, and confirmed that the vaccine candidates elicit an antibody response,” read the commentary co-authored by Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev and Dr. Tom Inglesby.

The mild side effects observed included variables such as pain at the injection site, headache, hyperthermia, muscle, and joint pain, etc.

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“Large, long-term trials including a placebo comparison and further monitoring are needed to establish the long-term safety and effectiveness of the vaccine for preventing COVID-19 infection,” he said. For reference, The Lancet is a peer-reviewed general medical journal founded in 1823.

However, Bar-Zeev also said that the research was “encouraging but small” and “clinical efficacy for any COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been shown.”

To this end, Russia is also initiating large-scale human trials of the COVID-19 vaccine that will involve more than 40,000 people. So far, Russia has managed to get more than 3,000 participants. Results of mass trials are expected to arrive in November and December this year.

After that, Russia will start mass production of the Sputnik-V COVID-19 vaccine with a production capacity of 1.5 to 2 million doses per month which will increase to 6 million in the future.

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