Clinical trial of Sputnik V covid vaccine to begin soon in many countries including India: Russia

News Network
September 7, 2020

Moscow, Sept 7: The clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine for coronavirus will be held this month in several countries including India, confirmed Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Monday.

Dmitriev told Sputnik that the clinical trials in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, India and Brazil will begin this month.

"The post-registration studies involving more than 40,000 people started in Russia on August 26, before AstraZeneca has started its Phase 3 trial in the US with 30,000 participants. Clinical trials in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Philippines, India and Brazil will begin this month. The preliminary results of the Phase 3 trial will be published in October-November 2020," said Dmitriev.

Russia was in close dialogue with the Indian government and the leading drug manufactures of India regarding the localization of production of Sputnik V vaccine in India.

On August 11, the Sputnik V vaccine developed jointly by RDIF and the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia and became the world's first registered vaccine against COVID-19.

According to Russian researchers, Sputnik V is a human adenoviral vector vaccine which fights against coronavirus disease.

"India has historically been a very important partner of Russia. India is one of the leading countries in production. Around 60 percent of all the vaccines in the world are produced in India. We are in close dialogue with the corresponding ministries and the India government and the leading manufacturer of the country regarding localisation of production of Sputnik V vaccine in India. And we have achieved certain agreements with the leading companies," Dmitriev said earlier in response to an ANI query on the talks between India and the Russian government on Sputnik V vaccine.

"We do recognise India and it's potential to become one of the support for the production of the vaccine not only in Indian markets but for other countries too. We very much appreciate the well- balanced approach expressed by the Indian partners as from the very beginning they started asking questions how our vaccine works and we appreciate it that they did not try to attack our vaccine but try to understand it," Dmitriev adding that their (India's) desire to understand our vaccine got to realize that their approach based on the human adenoviral vaccine platform is the most reasonable approach.

On September 4, a medical journal The Lancet has published the results of clinical trials of Phase I-II of the Russian vaccine demonstrating its safety and efficacy.

"Phase I-II clinical trials of Sputnik V showed no serious adverse events (SAE, Grade 3) for any of the criteria, while the incidence of serious adverse events for other candidate vaccines ranged from 1 per cent to 25 per cent," RDIF press note stated.

"In 100 per cent of participants in the clinical trials, Sputnik V generated a stable humoral and cellular immune response. The level of virus-neutralizing antibodies of volunteers vaccinated with Sputnik V was 1.4-1.5 times higher than the level of antibodies of patients who had recovered from COVID-19," RDIF press note further read.

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News Network
January 19,2026

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Donald Trump has linked his repeated threats to seize Greenland to his failure to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.

The authenticity of the letter, in which Trump says he no longer feels obligated to “think purely of peace,” was confirmed by Støre to the Norwegian newspaper VG.

“Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped eight wars plus, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace,” Trump wrote, adding he can now “think about what is good and proper for the United States.”

Støre said Trump’s letter was in response to a short message he had sent earlier, on behalf of himself and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb.

Trump has escalated rhetoric toward Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, insisting the US will take control “one way or the other.” Over the weekend, he tweeted: “Now it is time, and it will be done!!!”

On Saturday, Trump threatened a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Finland from 1 February until the US is allowed to purchase the island. EU diplomats met for emergency talks on possible retaliatory tariffs and sanctions.

In his letter, Trump argued Denmark “cannot protect” Greenland from Russia or China, questioning Danish ownership: “There are no written documents; it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago.” He added that NATO should support the US, claiming the world is “not secure unless we have complete and total control of Greenland.”

Trump’s stance has unsettled the EU and NATO, as he refused to rule out military action to take control of the mineral-rich island.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the government. Trump had campaigned for last year’s prize, which went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who dedicated her award to him.

Støre reiterated that the Nobel Prize decision rests solely with the committee.

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News Network
January 19,2026

New Delhi: Setting speculation to the rest, the CPI(M) has made it clear that it is open to have an electoral understanding with the Congress “to defeat” the Trinamool Congress and the BJP in West Bengal Assembly election even as it is all set to take on the grand old party in Kerala accusing it of “found wanting” in fighting the Hindutva forces.

The CPI(M) also said that it will contest the Tamil Nadu election “with DMK and its allies to defeat the BJP and its allies”, amid a section in the Congress triggering confusion about its participation in the M K Stalin-led coalition over demand over power-sharing and more seats. It is also willing to join hands with Congress and others in Assam and Puducherry to defeat the BJP.

The decisions came at a three-day meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee in Thiruvananthapuram, which ended on Sunday after reviewing the poll preparations in the poll-bound states.

The CPI(M)'s decision came even as a section led by West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar is averse to tying up with the Left Front, claiming that their party is not benefitted by the electoral understanding. Both Congress and CPI(M)-led Left Front had electoral understanding in 2016 and 2021 Assembly elections and 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Congress and the Left Front fought together for the first time in 2016 when Congress won 44 seats and the CPI(M) got 26. In 2021, the Left Front and the Congress drew a blank. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Congress managed to win one seat while the Left did not win any. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, both fought against each other with Congress winning two and the Left none.

“In Bengal, the party will work for the defeat of both the TMC and the BJP, which are trying to polarise the society. We will try to rally all the forces that are ready to work against them,” the CPI(M) said in a statement without naming Congress by name. Senior leaders said there is no change in its strategy of pooling all non-BJP, non-TMC votes.

However, the party was critical of the Congress in Kerala where both will fight against each other.

The CPI(M) said it would "expose the BJP-led Union government’s denial of rightful dues to Kerala, the fiscal constraints imposed and the overall attack on federalism" as also "expose the failure of the Congress to effectively counter this attack on federalism, as the largest opposition party in the Parliament".

"The Congress, especially in Kerala, was found wanting in the fight against communal RSS-BJP, ideologically and this will also be exposed before the people," it added.

In Assam, it said, the CPI(M) will work for the mobilisation of all the anti-BJP parties and forces and defeat the rabidly communal and divisive BJP government. The Left parties are cooperating with Congress in the north-eastern state. In Puducherry, it said it will work for the defeat of the BJP alliance government.

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