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Sputnik V developers awarded with 2020 State Prize for scientific research achievements

Russia’s State Prize is the highest award bestowed on dignitaries of science and culture for their achievements

MOSCOW, June 9. /TASS/. The 2020 State Prize for outstanding achievements in scientific research has been bestowed upon the developers of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, Andrei Fursenko, an aide to the Russian president, said at a news conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Their names are well known to the public — Alexander Gintsburg, Denis Logunov, and Sergey Borisevich. Their success in the creation of Sputnik V was no coincidence as Russia had already had a blueprint in the form of a platform they created for other vaccines, including against Ebola. It goes without saying that those people deserve the prize and the closest attention from the public," Fursenko said.

The decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Gintsburg, Logunov, and Borisevich are awarded for "the development and introduction of effective recombinant vaccines against Ebola and the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) into the practice of national healthcare, as well as for the development of technology designing viral systems for the delivery of cassettes with the insertion of the Ebola virus glycoprotein gene and the SARS-CoV-2 protein gene."

Russia’s State Prize is the highest award bestowed on dignitaries of science and culture for their achievements. It was established in 1992 as the successor to the Soviet Union’s State Prize. In addition to the cash reward (which was doubled in 2020 to 10 million rubles - or $138,395), the winners receive a certificate, an honorary medal and a badge.

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