(CNN) — Russia announced Thursday that it will begin post-registration clinical trials for its candidate covid-19 vaccine next week, and will involve 40,000 people.
Kirill Dmitriev, executive director of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund, said during a telebriefing with journalists that medical trials will be carried out in various countries around the world.
“We are going to conduct clinical trials not only in Russia, but also in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, probably in Brazil or in India, ”said Dmitriev. He also said that a delegation from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health would travel to Moscow next week.
LOOK: Sputnik V, Russia’s coronavirus vaccine: what we know about the scientific details of the treatment
Experts are skeptical about how quickly the vaccine, called Sputnik V, was registered and how few details have been released about the research.
Dmitriev said on Thursday that Russia would try to respond to Western criticism of the lack of information about its vaccine candidate by publishing a detailed scientific article in a “major publication” in August. He declined to name the publication where the study would be published.
He also declined to give an exact number on how many people the vaccine has already been tested on.
So far, Russia has not released any scientific data on its tests and CNN cannot verify the vaccine’s safety or efficacy claims.
Upcoming clinical trials are aimed at evaluating the vaccine’s “epidemic efficacy”, Denis Logunov, deputy director of scientific work at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, which is developing Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine, said Thursday.
LOOK: Russia’s coronavirus vaccine: why mistrust? What we know and don’t know about “Sputnik V”
Alexander Ginsburg, director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, described on Thursday how the vaccine is administered in two doses and involves the use of a different adenovirus for each of the two doses.
Dmitriev said that “Russia is open to international cooperation” and “we believe that other vaccines will come and the more vaccines we get, the better.”
There are now 30 candidate vaccines under clinical evaluation worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO list classifies the Russian vaccine as in phase 1 trials.
CNN’s Steve Tuemmler contributed to this report.
– .
