Russia's Sechenov University completes trials of world's first COVID-19 vaccine

Russia's Sechenov university has completed the clinical trials of the world's first coronavirus vaccine on their volunteers. Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, told Sputnik that the first batch of volunteers will be discharged on Wednesday, whereas, the second will be discharged on July 20. 

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"Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world's first vaccine against coronavirus," Tarasov said.

The university began the trials on June 18 and the vaccines were produced by Russia's Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

Alexander Lukashev, the director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University, said that the main objective of this stage of the study was to show the vaccine's safety for human health, which was successfully done.

"The safety of the vaccine is confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market," Lukashev told Sputnik.

According to Lukashev, further development plan for the vaccine is already determined by the developer's strategy, including the complexity of the epidemiological situation with the virus and the possibility of scaling up production. 

"Sechenov University in a pandemic situation acted not only as an educational institution but also as a scientific and technological research center that is able to participate in the creation of such important and complex products as drugs ... We worked with this vaccine, starting with preclinical studies and protocol development, and clinical trials are currently underway," Tarasov noted.