Data on preclinical and clinical studies of a new Russian coronavirus vaccine will be made public in the coming days, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters.

“Data on preclinical and clinical studies will be published in the coming days, possibly by Monday,” he said.

The minister noted that criticism of the new Russian vaccine was largely due to the fact “that more data had to be obtained on research,” adding that not everyone knows that “the vaccine is based on a platform, on which six products have already been made.” He assured that clinical trials would continue.

Head of the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Alexander Ginzburg hopes that Russians will get full access to the novel coronavirus vaccine developed by the center in about 9-12 months.

“It is important to understand when we will be able to meet the demand of the country. I hope that it will happen within 9-12 months,” he told TASS.

Earlier, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said during a session with Russian President Vladimir Putin that medical workers and teachers would be the first to get the vaccine.

The head of the Gamaleya Research Center noted that the amount of vaccine doses will be enough to vaccinate the first groups of the population.

Ginzburg informed that the vaccine would first be supplied to 10-15 regions of the country, however, he did not specify where.

He added that in a about a month, about one million vaccine doses would be produced at three plants producing monoclonal antibodies. “By the end of the year, there will be 1.5-2 mln doses produced. These are tangible and good numbers on the country’s scale,” he said.

On August 11, Russia became the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine, which was named Sputnik V. Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the vaccine created by the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology had shown its effectiveness and safety on the outcomes of clinical trials.

Header: ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA – MARCH 18, 2020: A medical worker in a protective suit takes swabs from a patient at St Petersburg City Polyclinic No 19 carrying out COVID-19 testing in the Frunzensky District; since March 16, St Petersburg residents have had an opportunity to do coronavirus tests in any city district. Peter Kovalev/TASS

Source: TASS