<p><strong>By Ilya Arkhipov</strong></p>.<p>Russia plans to start international clinical trials of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that it has already approved for use as it ramps up the number of domestic volunteers to more than 40,000 people as early as next week.</p>.<p>Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines will participate in trials, and Brazil and India are also in talks to provide volunteers, said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund that is backing the vaccine, without specifying the timing. The testing will adhere to international standards at home and abroad, he said.</p>.<p>“This will be one of the largest ongoing trials of vaccines in the world,” Dmitriev said. “It will be done in parallel with our high-risk workers such as health workers being vaccinated.”</p>.<p>Russia faces criticism for its rush to register and administer the vaccine, which Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute is developing with the wealth fund and the Defense Ministry, and for a lack of transparency with its data.</p>.<p>A “major publication in the West” will run Russia’s scientific paper, Dmitriev said. He declined to name the journal over concerns of “political pressure.”</p>.<p>President Vladimir Putin touted the vaccine as the world’s first this month after Russia gave it emergency registration before clinical trials were completed. Russia has the fourth-most cases globally and, while the initial peak of infections has passed, it has still averaged more than 5,000 new cases a day in August. The vaccine’s name, Sputnik V, harks back to Soviet Union’s launch of the first satellite into space in 1957.</p>.<p>More than 160 other vaccines are under development globally, and with contenders from the U.K., the U.S. and China racing become the first universally recognized barrier against Covid-19, which has killed more than 788,000 people and sickened more than 22 million, is still on.</p>.<p>In Russia, R-Pharm has a deal with AstraZeneca Plc to manufacture the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine. Billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s pharmaceuticals company Petrovax plans to test and produce China’s candidate, developed by CanSino Biologics.</p>
<p><strong>By Ilya Arkhipov</strong></p>.<p>Russia plans to start international clinical trials of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine that it has already approved for use as it ramps up the number of domestic volunteers to more than 40,000 people as early as next week.</p>.<p>Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines will participate in trials, and Brazil and India are also in talks to provide volunteers, said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the sovereign Russian Direct Investment Fund that is backing the vaccine, without specifying the timing. The testing will adhere to international standards at home and abroad, he said.</p>.<p>“This will be one of the largest ongoing trials of vaccines in the world,” Dmitriev said. “It will be done in parallel with our high-risk workers such as health workers being vaccinated.”</p>.<p>Russia faces criticism for its rush to register and administer the vaccine, which Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute is developing with the wealth fund and the Defense Ministry, and for a lack of transparency with its data.</p>.<p>A “major publication in the West” will run Russia’s scientific paper, Dmitriev said. He declined to name the journal over concerns of “political pressure.”</p>.<p>President Vladimir Putin touted the vaccine as the world’s first this month after Russia gave it emergency registration before clinical trials were completed. Russia has the fourth-most cases globally and, while the initial peak of infections has passed, it has still averaged more than 5,000 new cases a day in August. The vaccine’s name, Sputnik V, harks back to Soviet Union’s launch of the first satellite into space in 1957.</p>.<p>More than 160 other vaccines are under development globally, and with contenders from the U.K., the U.S. and China racing become the first universally recognized barrier against Covid-19, which has killed more than 788,000 people and sickened more than 22 million, is still on.</p>.<p>In Russia, R-Pharm has a deal with AstraZeneca Plc to manufacture the University of Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine. Billionaire Vladimir Potanin’s pharmaceuticals company Petrovax plans to test and produce China’s candidate, developed by CanSino Biologics.</p>