Russian scientist behind COVID-19 vaccine defends 'wartime' roll-out

Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, shows bottles with Sputnik-V vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during an interview with Reuters in Moscow, Russia September 24, 2020. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to share preliminary results of its COVID-19 vaccine trial based on the first six weeks of monitoring participants, raising the tempo in an already frenzied global race to end the pandemic.

Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Gamaleya Institute that produced the Sputnik V vaccine, told Reuters that the pace of its development was necessary under the "wartime" conditions of a pandemic but no corners were being cut.