⁍ Russia’s plan to publish preliminary data about the Sputnik V jab as early as November is likely to make it one of the first vaccine developers to share any data from a final stage trial.

---

⁍ The Sputnik V trial, involving 40,000 volunteers, has been underway in Moscow since the beginning of September.

---

⁍ Russia has been pushing ahead with its potential coronavirus vaccine at full speed.

---

– An experimental vaccine designed in Russia has so far only been given to 16,000 people in late-stage human trials, but the country plans to release interim results as early as November, a researcher tells Reuters. Interim results will be based on the first 42 days of monitoring participants in a trial of the Sputnik V vaccine, which is designed to fight the deadly strain of coronavirus. Russia has been working quickly to get the vaccine to market before large-scale trials have even begun, and it plans to send weekly data updates from its trial to Indian regulators, a source says. At least 300 million doses of the vaccine are expected to be manufactured in India. The trial, involving 40,000 volunteers, has been underway in Moscow since the beginning of September, and Russia plans to publish preliminary results as early as November. It is likely to be one of the first vaccine developers to share any data from a final stage trial, “known as Phase III,” but it also puts it at odds with competitors, Reuters notes. Western vaccine developers have said the publication of interim results depends on how many volunteers report becoming infected with coronavirus, thereby allowing the placebo and vaccine groups to be compared. A date for when this threshold is met cannot be set in advance. Interim Phase III results may be useful for foreign regulators deciding whether to procure supplies of Sputnik V or authorise local trials of the jab.