Mass Production of the Russian COVID-19 Vaccine Could Begin in Late 2020

Mass production of a vaccine against the coronavirus which is being developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology may start at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, Ilnaz Imatdinov, one of the developers and a laboratory chief at Vector said on July 29 in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel.

“According to the data I am familiar with, after registration of vaccine preparations the industrial partners are ready to organize production release of the preparation. If I am not mistaken, this is as soon as the end of this year or the beginning of the next one,” he said.

Ilnaz Imatdinov specified that this concerns the peptide vaccine which doesn’t contain a biological agent.

The Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology plans to increase the number of volunteers testing the vaccine against the novel coronavirus up to 100 people, Ilnaz Imatdinov revealed.

“This is a placebo-controlled study where five [volunteers] are intentionally injected with a vaccine, and others receive a placebo. In the future, the number of volunteers will be increased to a hundred,” he said.

According to the researcher, the sampling of five volunteers at the first stage of clinical trials is enough to evaluate the safety and the effectiveness of a vaccine. “Currently <…> the vaccine preparation has demonstrated complete safety,” he noted.

“Two vaccines have the greatest outlook now. One of them is developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry jointly with the Russian Defense Ministry’s 48th Central Research Institute,” Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.

The deputy prime minister added that in August of 2020 the vaccine’s “conditional” state certification is planned. This means that after the registration one more clinical study of the vaccine will be conducted on 1,600 people. The launch of industrial production of the Gamaleya Center’s vaccine is planned for September of 2020.

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