Statement by Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko at the virtual side-event “Sputnik V”: the COVID-19 Vaccine” on the margins of the 31st Special session of the UN General Assembly in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic
Dear colleagues,
Dear guests,
I am glad to welcome you at the presentation of the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine «Sputnik V». It is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform.
The vaccine was created by the well-known Russian National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology named after Honorary Academician N.F. Gamaleya. This Centre is one of the world’s leading research institutes in its area and has in its portfolio vaccines against Ebola fever.
The vaccine «Sputnik V» has received a registration certificate from the Russian Ministry of Health on 11 August 2020. Under emergency rules adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be used to vaccinate the population. We are going to increase the production of the vaccine in Russia and globally.
It currently ranks among the top candidate vaccines approaching the end of clinical trials and the start of mass production on the World Health Organization’s list.
In August 2020 the Russian Federation gave a marketing authorization to «Sputnik V». Large scale clinical trials were launched. Parallel to clinical evaluation, information on vaccinated patients is collected in a dedicated digital registry. This enables assessment of its efficacy and safety using real data.
Post-registration clinical trials were launched on 25 August 2020. They have involved more than 40 thousand people. Clinical trials are being conducted in Russia, Belarus, India, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Discussions are held about clinical trials in Brazil and other countries.
Collected data showed that the vaccine caused strong antibody and cellular immune response.
While the clinical trials are going, we have started to vaccinate high risk population groups. To date more than one hundred thousand citizens have already been vaccinated.
Vaccine Sputnik V is being delivered to all regions of Russia to launch a mass vaccination campaign shortly.
Thank you.
