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Coronavirus pandemic

India to start trials of Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine next week

As many as 180 volunteers have registered for the trials

NEW DELHI, November 15. /TASS/. The first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 is expected to reach a medical college in the Indian town of Kanpur by next week to carry out phase 2 and phase 3 of clinical trials on humans, college principal R B Kamal told reporters, according to PTI news agency.

Human clinical trials of the vaccine will start from next week, the principal of the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College said. "As many as 180 volunteers have registered for the trials. Head of the research Saurabh Agarwal will determine the dosage of the vaccine to be administered. One dose will be administered and the condition of volunteers will be monitored to determine whether they need further doses or not," Kamal was quoted by the news agency as saying.

The data will be analyzed to determine whether the vaccine is a success or not.

Earlier this week, a batch of the Russian vaccine was delivered to Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd in India’s Hyderabad.

In October, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (Dr. Reddy's) were approved by the Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine in India. It was specified that the country will carry out randomized controlled multicenter trials, which will include safety and immunogenicity tests.

On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July. The vaccine was developed on a platform that had been used for a number of other vaccines. Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev stated earlier that Russia had already received requests from 20 countries to supply 1 bln doses of the vaccine.

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