Safety, efficacy main concerns with Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine: Nobel laureate Peter Doherty

Echoing scientific community’s scepticism over Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine rolled out for emergency use, bel laureate Peter Charles Doherty says his “big worry” is re could be refusals for or vaccines if doubts over its safety turn out to be true.

Russian President Vlimir Putin last week anunced that his country has developed world’s first vaccine against COVID-19, which works "quite effectively" and forms "stable immunity" against disease. He also disclosed that one of his daughters has alrey been given vaccine, named Sputnik V.

" main concern is if any major safety issues emerge... My bet is that y won’t, but that’s a guess and, if re is a safety issue, big worry is that this could cause more vaccination refusal for or vaccines that are me using very different approaches," Doherty told PTI from Melbourne in an email interview.

Sputnik V has been developed by Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology along with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). vaccine has t been tested in Phase 3 or larger clinical trials. bel laureate, who is with Department of Microbiology and Immulogy at Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne, also believes that India with its "great track record in low-cost drug manufacturing" can be a major player.

"Given India’s great track record in low-cost drug and vaccine manufacture, we expect that India will be a major player. This is, after all, fastest way to return global ecomic activity," said Doherty, who was awarded bel Prize for Medicine in 1996 for his discovery of how body’s immune system distinguishes virus-infected cells from rmal ones.

Sputnik V vaccine consists of two shots that use different versions of eviruses -- virus s some of which cause common cold -- that manufacturers have engineered to carry gene for surface protein, or spike, of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19.

 "We understand that Russian vaccine is a prime/boost with two virus-vector products using -26 and -5. se eviruses both cause infections in humans and re could be an issue with pre-existing antibody diminishing vaccine efficacy," Doherty explained.

This is a well-established strategy, and one major US group is also well ahe with an -5 vectored vaccine, he said. He said Russians are evidently in process of doing a clinical trial, so it is to be seen how quickly y move forward from that. " main issues with Sputnik V and, indeed, any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, are safety and efficacy," he ded.

  Asked wher world needed a drug to be invented at moment rar than a vaccine to fight COVID-19, bel laureate said, "A vaccine is a cheapest and quickest way forward but, if that doesn’t work (and to treat people anyway) we need specific antiviral drugs.  "I understand that this work is being done, but re is little public information to date. Also, a possibility are moclonal antibodies, like those being me by Regeneron in USA." Moclonal antibodies are me by identical immune cells which are all clones belonging to a unique parent cell.

  Doherty said he is also very aware that vaccines being prepared with sponsorship of Switzerland-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Invations (CEPI) will be me available to poorer countries.

"One of se is University of Queensland (UQ) protein clamp vaccine developed by Professor Paul Young’s group that should be going into Phase 2 clinical trials after a Phase 1 trial that was initiated in July,” he said.

"Apart from being given to Australians and people in Pacific states, a priority will be to deliver this to poorer countries because this was developed under auspices of CEPI. CSL (Commonwealth Serum Laboratories) company can make 100 million doses of UQ vaccine a year in Australia," 79-year-old said.

WHO and major vaccine companies are also committed to necessity that everyone across globe should be offered vaccination, he ded.  Vaccine testing typically begins with lab and animal model studies before going on to different sts of human trials.

human testing phase comprises many phases. Phase 1 trials are small-scale, usually involving a few participants, to assess wher vaccine is safe for humans.

Phase 2 trials often involve several hundred subjects and mainly evaluate efficacy of vaccine against disease. final, Phase 3, involves thousands of people to furr assess efficacy of vaccine over a defined period of time and can last several months.

(Im credits: smh.com.au)