More than a dozen scientists have sent a letter to The Lancet critiquing a paper it recently published on a Russian COVID-19 vaccine, Reuters reports.
Russia approved a coronavirus vaccine last month, though critics called the decision premature as the vaccine has yet to undergo Phase III testing. Last week, researchers from the Gamaleya Institute who developed the vaccine, dubbed Sputnik-V, published initial data in The Lancet from a Phase I/II trial that indicated the vaccine induced a strong humoral and cellular immune response among the 76 participants tested.
But as The Scientist reports, researchers soon raised questions about some of the data in the paper. For instance, it notes that Temple University's Enrico Bucci pointed out in a blog post that there were possible data inconsistencies within figures in the paper and that getting access to the raw data could help investigate these concerns.
As Reuters previously reported, about two dozen researchers co-signed Bucci's open letter, and it now reports 15 researchers have sent a formal letter to The Lancet.
"The published results are authentic and accurate and were examined by five reviewers at The Lancet," Denis Logunov, deputy director at Gamaleya, says in a statement, according to Reuters.