- On Tuesday, Vladimir Putin said Russia had the first effective vaccine against the coronavirus.
- A resounding announcement in a scientific world almost entirely turned towards the search for a solution against this pandemic.
- Behind the spectacularity of the declaration lie many questions.
Vladimir Putin announced this morning with great fanfare that Russia had the first effective vaccine against the coronavirus, nothing less. Let's go to try to see more clearly in this announcement as spectacular as it is unexpected.
In Russia, we are clearly getting carried away. The Deputy Prime Minister in charge of health issues, Tatiana Golikova, said she hoped to start in the coming weeks the vaccination of medical personnel, then teachers. The rest of the population should be vaccinated against the coronavirus from its entry into circulation on January 1, 2021. More than a billion doses of this vaccine, dubbed “Sputnik V”, have been pre-ordered by 20 foreign countries said the president of the Russian sovereign wealth fund involved in its development, Kirill Dmitriev. An enthusiasm that does not prevent questions.
This vaccine, should we believe it?
We are not going to make the (false) suspense last any longer, there are many reasons to be careful. Not that Russia is unable to manufacture a vaccine, or even to be the first on the spot, but to be so fast and to be so far ahead of the “competition”, that invites reservations.
Finding a vaccine is all well and good, but it still has to be tested. And it often takes longer than the quest for the mother in How I Met Your mother? However, "it is not very credible that all these tests have already come to an end and with conclusive answers", brushes dryly Nathalie Coutinet, researcher in health economics at the University of Paris-XIII and expert in the strategies of pharmaceutical companies. The verdict is clear: a vaccine usually takes about ten years (!) To be discovered and tested.
If at this stage of your reading, you are thinking "it's fucked up, we will live with the coronavirus until 2030", rest assured, the search for a treatment has rarely mobilized so many financial resources. and humans. It is therefore possible that the precious sesame arrives faster than normal. But in less than a year, that would be very surprising, considers Nathalie Coutinet. It suffices to compare with the research of other nations: the most advanced vaccines are finishing phase 2, or barely entering phase 3 of tests, those on increasingly large human cohorts. Imagining Russia having such a lead therefore leaves one skeptical. Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the greatest caution about this premature vaccine, citing the complexity of the procedures and tests.
Can Russia skip certain tests?
“There is a real expectation that an effective serum will be made available from populations and governments. The temptation to speed up procedures can therefore be strong, ”warns Nathalie Coutinet. So far, Russia has not published a detailed study of the results of its trials leading to a conclusion that the products it says it has developed are effective. Therefore, do we risk having a product not really tested in our pharmacies?
Not so fast. Each country (or political organization such as the European Union) has an agency to verify that the procedures are followed and that the vaccine meets the testing and safety requirements. Even once placed on the market, the treatment is forced into a phase known as pharmacovigilance during which we will again check that there are no problems by monitoring the returns.
Of course, the agencies do not test the product themselves and will only monitor the data sent by the creator country, in this case Russia. Data fraud is therefore possible, "but the agencies will be extremely vigilant in the face of such an early vaccine and the data will be scrutinized," says the researcher.
Depending on the practice, a vaccine may be authorized for sale in some countries and not in others. The prospect of a flexible Russia with its own product while Europe or the United States would refuse Sputnik V is therefore not a scenario to be ruled out.
Do you have to be the first to release a vaccine to win the research battle?
One thing is certain, the discovery of a vaccine, even a patented one, would not mean the end of the research race. “There will most certainly be several vaccines marketed at the same time, prophesies the researcher. Several models and active ingredients are currently being tested, and nothing prevents several of them from succeeding. On the very contrary, it could prove to be extremely useful as several different immune responses develop with the coronavirus. ". Russia has yet to win the research war.
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Coronavirus: Russia has developed the "first" vaccine, announces Vladimir Putin
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