Bangalore: Biotechnology industry veteran Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has questioned Russian claims of developing the world’s first safe coronavirus vaccine. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has cited absence of data on clinical trials and ‘more advanced’ programmes elsewhere and said doubts exist about the Russian vaccine.
The world has not seen any data on Phase 1 or 2 clinical trials conducted by the Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute which has made the vaccine. So the vaccine’s authenticity is doubtful saod Shaw the executive chairperson of the Bangalore-headquartered Biocon Ltd.
“If launching a vaccine prior to completion of Phase 3 trials is acceptable to Russia, well so be it,” Mazumdar-Shaw said Thursday. “But it doesn’t make them the makers of the world’s first vaccine. Several other vaccine programmes are even more advanced,” she added.
Russia announced Tuesday it had become the first country to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine. The first dose of the vaccine Sputnik-V, developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry, was administered to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s daughter.