The Russian government has announced its plans to test the latest vaccine candidates in late clinical trials to take place in Ukraine, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) announced on Saturday. This COVID-19 vaccine is a combination of the already-completed Russian vaccine, the Sputnik V, and a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in partner with Oxford University.
Russia’s sovereign RDIF, which has been put in charge of marketing efforts for the Sputnik V vaccine abroad, reported its intention to begin clinical trials in December to test the combination of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the Sputnik shot. These trials would be conducted to determine if the Russian-manufactured vaccine would boost the efficacy of the AstraZeneca and Oxford University-produced shot.
So far, 800,000 Russian citizens have received the Sputnik V vaccine, with over 1.5 million doses already distributed to healthcare providers. Argentina and Belarus began rolling out their Sputnik V vaccinations on Tuesday, with Venezuela expecting to seal a deal for the vaccination of 10 million of its citizens.
