President Igor Dodon’s assertion that he intends to ask for the Russian vaccine against COVID-19 for the citizens of the Republic of Moldova is hasty, said public health expert Ala Tocarciuc. “We know from the Russian press that this vaccine was authorized for Russia only, for a period of six months, so that Phase III of the clinical trial could be performed, which is on a larger number of people, so as to obtain statistical data about the efficiency and inoffensiveness of this vaccine. We cannot import into the Republic of Moldova a pharmaceutical product that is not registered on a permanent basis, which is by the classical model, in the country of origin,” the expert said in a public debate titled “Who is afraid of COVID-19 and why”, which was staged by IPN News Agency.
“We have legislation in the Republic of Moldova. It is not the best one in Europe in the field of medicines, but we have it. For a medicine to get to the Republic of Moldova, this vaccine should be first of all authorized. For it to be authorized, particular pharmaceutical requirements should be met and those three phases of clinical trials need to be performed. They assumed a risk, but this risk is within the borders of Russia. They cannot transfer this risk to us now as we have a legal framework,” said Ala Tocarciuc.
“Regarded as a biological product, as a medicine, this vaccine holds interest for a specialist. They do not have scientific materials about it, but have a lot of articles in the mass media and, as far as I know, the vaccine model has been tested not for two months, as they say, but since 2010. What they try to do is a copy of the Chinese concept and a copy of the English concept. They are not the only ones who use this concept of vector, of carrier. It will be very interesting to see the results of Phase III of the clinical study as, if it is really efficient and inoffensive, it will be registered in Russia on a permanent basis. We will have to take a decision as to what vaccine we will accept for the Moldovans – the English, the Russian or the Chinese one.”
Ala Tocarciuc noted that the vaccine against the novel coronavirus is now a research product. It has the same status as another 160 tested vaccines, eight of which, including the Russian one, are at the third phase of the trial.
The debate “Who is afraid of COVID-19 and why” was the 149th installment of the debates project “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.
