Russia has released the first batch of Sputnik V, its highly controversial coronavirus vaccine, for nationwide circulation.

A Russian Health Ministry statement said the vaccine will soon be available for global consumption as well, according to a MoneyControl report.

The vaccine has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), on August 11.

This comes as the medical journal Lancet mentioned in a report that the developers of the vaccine said it appeared to be safe and prompted an antibody response in all 40 people tested in the second phase of the study within three weeks.

However, the authors noted that participants were only followed for 42 days, the study sample was small and there was no placebo or control vaccine used, the Lancet added.

Age of the sample

The analysis published in Lancet also mentioned that one part of the safety trial included only men. Also, the experiments involved young people in their 20s and 30s. So, the efficacy of the vaccine for older age groups is yet to be ascertained.

Earlier in August, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s daughter became the first person to be vaccinated against the virus after the completion of its clinical trials, as per the previous reports.

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko informed that the vaccine will be first given to frontline workers and risk groups including doctors, health workers, and teachers, reported Russian news agency TASS.

On September 4, Russian scientists belatedly published the first results from early trials into the Sputnik V vaccine.