ANKARA, March 25./TASS/. The Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V will be ready for wide use after toxicological studies are completed, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Thursday.
"We closely watched the process to develop the vaccine called Sputnik V. Initial negotiations on the supply of Sputnik V began. This vaccine will be ready for wide use after the process of testing is completed, which is needed to make sure of its suitability," the minister said in a statement released on Thursday.
Fahrettin Koca reported about the start of toxicological trials of Sputnik V on February 25. Besides, he said that Ankara also expected to get about 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of May. Currently, over 14 million people have been vaccinated in Turkey, according to the minister.
On January 23, a representative of the Russian Direct Investment Fund told TASS that an agreement had been reached with a leading Turkish manufacturer of pharmaceutical products on producing Sputnik V in Turkey. The technology transfer process has begun, he noted.
Russia was the world’s first to register an anti-coronavirus vaccine on August 11, 2020. The vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry, was given the name Sputnik V. It is a vector vaccine based on the human adenovirus
On February 2, 2020, The Lancet, a world-acclaimed medical journal, published the results of the third phase of Sputnik V clinical tests. The vaccine has proved to be among the world’s safest and most efficient. Thus, its efficacy is estimated at 91.6% and 91.8% among volunteers older than 60. Ninety-eight percent of volunteers developed antibodies to the coronavirus. All developed cell-mediated immunity.
As of now, Sputnik V has been registered in more than 50 countries with the population of over 1.3 billion people.