Russia registered the first Coronavirus vaccine, the Wall Street Journal reports. Russia’s vaccine is the first important breakthrough in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Russian vaccine – developed at the Gamaleya Institute – was tested on animals and two groups of 38 humans each.
Russia’s clinical testing is much less than required for approval of drugs by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA typically doesn’t approve drugs until they have passed three phases of clinical testing.
But Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko claims all volunteers developed high titers of antibodies in response to the vaccine. He said “none of them had serious complications of immunization.”
The world is happy with the announcement. A vaccine wasn’t scheduled to go to market until at least the end of the year or early 2021.
The U.S. stock market’s reaction to the news was negative. U.S. vaccine related stocks—including Moderna (ticker: MRNA), Noravax (NVAX) and Pfizer (PFE) are all down on the news.
