Russia’s second coronavirus vaccine have reportedly passed early clinical trials and have been proved successful, its developer said Thursday after Russia boasted of approving the world’s first vaccine.
Russia’s Vektor a top-secret state virology research centre in Siberia said that early stage trials were successful for its own experimental vaccine, named EpiVacCorona.
Vektor’s press department told the Interfax news agency: “The first two phases of clinical trials demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of the EpiVacCorona vaccine.”
Vektor said it would be possible to make the final conclusions about the efficacy of its vaccine, based on peptides that trigger an immune response, after post-approval clinical trials have been completed.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told President Vladimir Putin this week that Vektor’s vaccine could be approved by the ministry in three weeks.
Vektor said post-registration clinical trials would begin on 5,000 volunteers in Siberia. The lab said there would be a separate clinical trial involving 150 volunteers who are over 60 years of age.
After that Vektor will begin placebo-controlled trials on 5,000 Russian volunteers between the ages of 18 and 60.
The EpiVacCorona vaccine is a two-component vaccine, and the interval between the administration of the first and second components is 21 days.
Russia plans to manufacture an initial 10,000 doses, Vektor said, with production expected to begin in November.
