SPUTNIK V

Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute was the first ever to claim to have developed a vaccine against Covid-19. However, since the announcement was made ahead of Phase III trials, Sputnik V faced global criticism.

Eventually, the preliminary evidence was presented and Sputnik V became one of the frontrunners amidst scepticism.

In December 2020, Gamaleya Research Institute, part of Russia’s ministry of health, announced to have developed a Covid-19 vaccine with an efficacy rate of 91.4 per cent.

Earlier known as Gam-Covid-Vac, the vaccine has been developed from a combination of two adenoviruses called Ad5 and Ad26.

The first trials were launched in June 2020. In August 2020, President Vladimir Putin announced that the vaccine had been approved by a Russian health care regulator, even before the Phase III trial had started.

Russia backtracked after global criticism of the vaccine which had been renamed as Sputnik V.

In September 2020, Gamaleya published results of the Phase I/II trial with volunteers in Belarus and the United Arab Emirates. Phase III trials were conducted in India in October.

By November 2020, researchers gave preliminary evidence that the vaccine is effective based on Phase III trials and the Russian government launched a mass vaccination drive.

The Russian government had also started offering vaccine deals to other countries by November 2020.

On December 26, 2020, Gamaleya announced that the vaccine had an efficacy of over 90 per cent in people over 60.

Later, Gamaleya joined forces with British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca to deliver stronger protection together than either does on its own.

So far, Russia has brokered Sputnik V vaccine deals with Brazil, India, Mexico, and Venezuela.

Outside Russia, Belarus and Argentina are the other two countries to have approved Sputnik V.