Scientists from the Gamaleya Center, creators of the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus, have denounced bribery attempts from abroad to leave their work and work in other pharmaceutical companies. This is stated by the director of the center, the microbiologist Alexandr Guintsburg.

In his words, the most competent workers at the center have worked there since the last 10 years, so those who try to bribe them to abandon their work in favor of other pharmaceutical companies “will not succeed,” Alexandr Guintsburg said in comments to the Russian channel.

“This group of scientists is the envy of any American and European university,” added the director of the center.

In mid-August, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the first vaccine against coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, a pathogen that causes COVID-19, which they called Sputnik V. It was created by the Gamaleya Centre in collaboration with the Russian Direct Investment Fund. The first two stages of the test, the most rigorous, were successfully completed and under emergency conditions, the Russian Ministry of Health authorized its immediate use in an extraordinary way.

In parallel, the vaccine is passing the third and final stage of testing, which is applied to thousands of volunteers.

“We are witnessing how this problem exceeded purely scientific boundaries and moved into the economic and political realm. Certain countries in North America and Western Europe have apparently been frightened that our vaccine could go out into the international market and deprive them of big profits,” says Alexandr Guintsburg.

In this way, the microbiologist explains the wave of notes and articles published in the mainstream media that criticize the Russian vaccine for coming to market without having completed the last stage of testing.

The director of the Gamaleya Center affirmed that the vaccine has already demonstrated its effectiveness against the coronavirus and that its application among the population is an extraordinary step, approved in the midst of an emergency situation that the world is experiencing.

He recalled that in the last five months almost 800,000 people have lost their lives due to the coronavirus. “If we ask the relatives of the people who died from this infection that would they give this vaccine in their time or wait for more tests, I think the answer would be obvious.”