MOSCOW—Russia registered the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, marking a milestone in the fight against the new coronavirus but amid safety concerns in the West over the country’s accelerated clinical evaluations. The development was met with anticipation and skepticism in the country and raises questions not only about the efficacy of the Russian vaccine, which some global health officials say was developed by cutting regulatory corners, but also how the registration could alter the landscape for other Western and Asian drug companies still working toward a shot. Some health and pharmaceutical officials in Russia and the West have expressed alarm at the speed with which scientists at Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology developed the vaccine. Scientists employed military testing, accelerated clinical evaluations and shortened trial times in an attempt to be first with a vaccine. Russia hopes to use it in a massive immunization program at home and to export it abroad under the name Sputnik V—a reference to the satellite it launched into orbit in the Cold War space race, beating the U.S.“We should be grateful to those who have taken this first step, which is very important for our country and the whole world,” Mr. Putin told a government meeting Tuesday, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 11, 2020 10:34 UTC