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Amina Taylor
Press TV, London
Russia is blasting claims its production of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine is risking the lives of patients.

Moscow dismissed the claims as ‘groundless’ concerns that are unmerited and motivated by commercial and scientific competition. It could be the silver bullet the world has been waiting on.

An effective vaccine to slow down or even eliminate the effects of the dreaded Coronavirus.

But in a global pharmaceutical industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars, Moscow beating other well-established nations to the punch and launching a Covid-19 battling vaccine has been met with scepticism and in some cases downright hostility.

With production of the drug – dubbed Sputnik-V in honour of the world's first satellite launched by the Soviet Union back in 1957 - set to begin in two weeks, Moscow is putting the brakes on the speculation.

Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin stunned the international medical community by announcing Sputnik-V had been granted regulatory approval – and furthermore, his own daughter had been one of the trial patients.

With the Covid-19 pandemic already claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and millions already infected, the impact of an effective treatment for the virus cannot be underestimated.

In fact, shares in US stocks associated with vaccine trials dipped on the announcement by Putin.

Over 20 nations, including The Philippines and Kazakhstan have expressed interest in the vaccine, perhaps buoyed by the knowledge the vaccine is being developed by Moscow's Gamaleya Institute, who based Sputik-V on its own internationally approved Ebola vaccine.

Brazil’s Parana's Technology Institute has signed a co-operation deal with Moscow to produce and distribute Sputnik-V pending final approval.

Now the world waits…Russia’s vaccine will be administered to a wider test group on a voluntary basis in the final trial with a mass rollout in Russia expected to start in October

Original Article Source: Press TV | Published on Thursday, 13 August 2020 21:55 (about 1322 days ago)