By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay
There is a frenzied race by the world’s multinational companies towards a successful and effective coronavirus vaccine. There are about 200 COVID-19 vaccines currently in research and development by companies worldwide with full support from their respective government.
At the forefront of these many companies are Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in tandem with Russian business conglomerate, SISTEMA, Cansino in China, Oxford University in England, Johnson and Johnson, Astra Zeneca and Moderna in the US and many more.
It appears that Russia is leading the race because last August 11, Gemaleya Research Institute registered the world’s first novel coronavirus vaccine, naming it Sputnik V after the first Russian satellite to orbit in space in 1965 which spurred the US to double time and catch up, thus invigorating space research around the world.
Sputnik V is now on Phase III of the coronavirus vaccine trial. Data from Sputnik V’s Phase I and Phase II trials which were completed August 1 have not yet been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
But Gamaleya’s Director Alexander Gintsburg said it will be published end of August. The development of the vaccine was supported by Russia’s Defense Ministry and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. In other words, Gamaleya has the full military and financial backing of the government of Russia which indeed will have all government resources at its disposal to speed up the development of the vaccine.
President Putin of Russia proudly announced that Russia had become the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval to a COVID-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing.
Pre-clinical trials on animals such as hamsters (a rodent specie), mice, guinea pig, rats, rabbits showed that it induced a strong antibody and cellular immunization. The Russian Ministry of Health argued that allowing the virus to be given to the most at-risk population is completely ethical and adequate. It is interesting to note that ISRAEL IS VYING TO TAKE PART in Russia’s Phase III coronavirus vaccine trials.
Israel’s Hadasseh Medical Center is in negotiation to test the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and to potentially manufacture and distribute it in the Jewish State if the Phase III trial proves safe and effective. The vaccine will be marketed under the name “Sputnik V” on foreign markets. Russia had already received foreign requests for One Billion doses. International agreements have been secured to produce 500 million doses annually. Clinical trials WILL START SOON IN THE PHILIPPINES AND IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.
Russian health workers treating COVID-19 patients will be offered the chance of volunteering to be vaccinated in the coming weeks, a regulatory approval paves the way for the mass inoculation of the Russian population and Russian authorities hope it will allow the battered economy due to coronavirus to recover and return to full capacity.
But many scientists around the world are worried that Russia had moved too fast in approving Sputnik V before the final stage of trials to test safety and efficacy are over. President Putin dismissed these concerns, saying Sputnik V vaccine is safe and that it had even been administered to one of her daughters.
The Moscow-based Association of Clinical Trials Organization (ACTO), a trade body representing the world’s top drugmakers in Russia urged the Health Ministry to postpone approval until the final trial had been successfully completed. It said there were high risks associated with registering a drug before that happened. Normally a large number of people is required for testing before a vaccine is approved.
In the Sputnik V website, it explains that coronavirus vaccine research and DEVELOPMENT are classified into four main categories: viral vector-based vaccines, virus-based, nucleic-acid-based and protein-based. Sputnik V vaccine is viral-vector based. A vector is a virus that lacks a gene responsible for reproduction and is used to transport genetic material from another virus that is being vaccinated against a cell.
Specifically, Gamaleya took two strains of human adenovirus, Ad5 and Ad26, from which they genetically removed the part that is responsible for virus replication, and inserted a gene with the code of a protein from another virus spike in its stead. This new element is what triggers an immune response, causing the body to produce antibodies that protect the recipient from infection. The vaccine is administered in two doses, 21 days apart.
Human adenoviruses are not new. According to the Sputnik V website, more than 350 scientific studies have been done and published in various sources around the world concerning the creation of adenovirus vectors. The Gemaleya Institute has been working on adenoviral vector since the 1980s and therefore its viral-vector based doesn’t require years of research and confirmation.
Israel’s Hadassah Medical Center Stepensky differentiated Sputnik V from the vaccine candidates being developed by Oxford University, Astra Zeneca and Moderna, which are based on technologies that have never been used in approved vaccines before. As such, no long term studies have been conducted on the possible side-effects of such technology on the human body. But Sputnik V is backed up by studies dating back to the ’80s.
With all the mumbo jumbo dizzying technical explanation on vaccines, for us ordinary people, the simple but good news is that an effective vaccine may come out by December this year, spearheaded by the Russian Sputnik V.
In fact, President Duterte had announced recently that he is volunteering to take the first shot of Sputnik V himself. Let us hope and pray that by the first quarter of 2021, mass vaccination of Filipinos can start so that our country can recover from this economic malaise caused by the pandemic.
Personally, I would rather go for the Russian vaccine (because Israel wants to partner with them) than with the Chinese. Our President should maintain our good relations with Russia (unlike China, so far we have no areas of quarrel with the Russians), so we can be on its priority list when Sputnik V is commercially available.
We have to trust our President as to what vaccine he will choose, because when you really trust someone, you have to be okay with not understanding some things!
