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Coronavirus pandemic

Sechenov University denies allegations about vaccinating Russian elites against COVID-19

The medicine can be accessible for general use only after registration, the director of the university said

© Pyotr Kovalyov/TASS

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Vadim Tarasov, director of the Sechenov Medical University’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnologies, has refuted media allegations that Russian elites were inoculated against the novel coronavirus infection back in April as rumors and speculations.

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"We conducted pre-clinical tests, we conducted clinical tests. The medicine has not yet been registered. The Health Ministry is to decide about its registration within days. It can be accessible for general use only after registration. So, let these rumors remain on the conscience of those who spread them. It may be mere speculation," he told journalists on Monday.

The press service of the Russian ministry of industry and trade told TASS on June 30 the ministry had received documents for a vaccine registration. In June, the ministry issued a permit for clinical tests of a liquid and freeze-dried vaccines developed by the Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology jointly with the Russian Defense Ministry’s research institute No48. The liquid vaccine is being tested on 43 volunteers at the Burdenko Main Military Hospital and the freeze dried vaccine is being tested at the Sechenov Medical University, also on 43 volunteers.

The second phase of the anti-coronavirus vaccine tests will be finished on August 3 and the national regulator is expected to issue a permit for its use in late August or early September, according to head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Kirill Dmitriev. The third phase of clinical tests will be conducted in Russia and in a number of foreign countries, in particular in the Middle East.

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