- i24news
- International
- Prestigious medical journal calls into doubt Russian COVID-19 vaccine
Prestigious medical journal calls into doubt Russian COVID-19 vaccine
Russia announced last month that its vaccine, named 'Sputnik V,' had received approval
The Lancet medical journal said Thursday that it has asked for clarification from the developers of a Russian COVID-19 vaccine after doubts arose about the plausibility of their results.
Russia announced last month that its vaccine, named "Sputnik V" after the Soviet-era satellite that was the first launched into space in 1957, had already received approval.
This raised concerns among Western scientists over a lack of safety data, with some warning that moving too quickly on a vaccine could be dangerous.
The lead author of the study, Russian researcher Denis Logunov, quoted by the public news agency RIA Novosti, dismissed the accusations and stressed that The Lancet had access "to all the data collected during scientific research."
Russian researchers published their trial findings last week in the scientific publication, meaning their research had undergone review from a selection of their peers.
It said that the vaccine had proven to be "safe and well-tolerated" among a few dozen volunteers.
However, an open letter signed this week by more than 30 European-based experts cast doubt on the findings, pointing towards "potential data inconsistencies."
The researchers identified what they said appeared to be a number of duplications in figures presented and concluded that the data within the study was "highly unlikely" to be correct.
The pandemic has seen an unprecedented mobilization of funding and research to rush through a vaccine that can protect billions of people worldwide.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca said this week it was halting Phase 3 trials of its candidate vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford after one volunteer fell ill.