With the ongoing coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there are vaccines in line ready to be approved and tested. Russia became the first country to register the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine called Sputnik V.
It has been approved after only seeing results from Phases 1 and 2 and released its first batch of vaccines into the public and is undergoing the Phase 3 human testing trial.
Sputnik V, developed by Gamelaya Research, is supposed to provide immunity from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19, for up to two years.
The vaccine, providing immunity towards disease, is injected into the body which activates the immune system to develop antibodies to fight a harmful foreign object. However, before a vaccine can be licensed for worldwide use, it should undergo four testing phases.
The pre-clinical stage is a test done on animals while Phases 1 and 2 are done on a small and large number of people, respectively. On Phase 3, the vaccine is tested on thousands of people with a “control group” who’s given a placebo as a clinical testing standard.
The trials involved healthy adults at ages 18 to 60 that were self-isolated as soon as they registered and remained in the hospital for the first 28 days of trial from when they were first vaccinated.
Russia is requesting India to perform a Phase 3 trial and to manufacture its vaccine. There are currently several companies in India that are studying the proposal. Moreover, It’s believed to be a “win-win situation” considering their capability of producing high quality vaccines in huge quantities.
Besides India, other countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippines, and Brazil will also begin the test trials.
Story by Hannah Tan and Mikaela Motol
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