09-11-2020

The coronavirus vaccine race will be at its peak in January next year, Professor at the Skoltech Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Dmitry Kulish said at a Harvard Club of Russia online discussion.

"If we talk about the race [on creating an effective vaccine], the peak of the race will occur at the start of January 2021, when everyone will be comparing serious side effects," Kulish said at the online discussion, the main topic of which was the creation of vaccines amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the professor, most reports on the third phase clinical trials of different coronavirus vaccines, including Russia's Sputnik V, are expected to come out in January, as well as reports on any serious side effects.

Kulish said that mass vaccination could start as early as the beginning of next year after reports on side effects are analyzed.

In August, Russia became the first country in the world to register a vaccine against the coronavirus, dubbed Sputnik V, and developed by the Gamaleya research institute. The vaccine is now nearing the end of phase 3 clinical trials.

Earlier this week, Rinat Maksyutov, the head of the Russian State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector, announced that mass vaccination against COVID-19 with Russia's second coronavirus vaccine, EpiVacCorona, would start in 2021.