Russia said it will move forward with post-registration clinical trials for its coronavirus vaccine candidate next week with 40,000 participants, CNN reports.
During a Thursday telebriefing with journalists, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said the trials of the “Sputnik V” vaccine will take place in several countries.
"We're going to do clinical trials not just in Russia but also the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, probably in Brazil or in India," Dmitriev said. He said that a delegation from the Saudi Ministry of Health would be traveling to Moscow next week.
He added that Russia would try to answer criticism the country has faced over the lack of information about the proposed vaccine in a detailed science paper in a “major publication” this month.
He did not reveal what publication would feature the study.
Russia is yet to release any data on its testing or information on its safety or effectiveness, according to CNN.
Denis Logunov, deputy director for scientific work at the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, who is developing the Russian virus vaccine, said the next round of clinical trials will assess the "epidemic efficacy" of the vaccine.
Gamaleya's Director Alexander Ginsburg said the vaccine candidate is administered in two doses and involves using a different adenovirus for each of the two doses.
Dmitriev said that "Russia is open to international cooperation" and "we do believe that there will be other vaccines coming up and the more vaccines we get the better."
The World Health Organization reports that there are 30 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation across the world.
According to WHO, the Russian vaccine is listed as being in Phase 1 trials.
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