NEW YORK, October 13. /TASS/: Russia intends to have clinical trials of its Sputnik V vaccine against the new coronavirus in different countries, since it is confident in its effectiveness, the drug will be one of the most studied in the world. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said this in an interview with CNN, which was released on Monday.
"We have already vaccinated more than 12,000 people in Russia. We have started clinical trials in Belarus, Venezuela. We expect to start clinical trials also in India this week. So, we have a lot of nations that are quite interested in this," he said.
The head of the RDIF, who spoke English, said that the vaccine trials will also take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"We are very excited about clinical trials in the UAE. Basically, the UAE has a very credible regulator that is respected by the world," he said.
"Our vaccine will be one of the best studied vaccines in the world," Dmitriev assured.
"If we did not believe in this, Russia would not be so outwardly offering clinical trials around the world," he noted.
When asked if the Russian soldiers "used as volunteers for human trials of the vaccine" were really volunteers, Dmitriev noted: "Of course. As you can see, people in the UAE are volunteers. People in other countries are volunteers. Imagine, if Russia did not believe in a vaccine, we would not have started clinical trials in the UAE and would not have be so open," he stressed.
The head of the RDIF said that the production capacity in Russia will initially be sufficient only to provide Russians with vaccine.
"All the vaccine that we can produce in Russia will originally be used in Russia. That is why we need production in India and Brazil to manufacture for the rest of the world," he said.
On August 11, Russia became the first worldwide to register the vaccine against the coronavirus which was named Sputnik V. The preparation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center and passed clinical trials in June-July.
