The Russian Health Ministry has given its blessing to yet another home-baked coronavirus vaccine, this one based on an artificially weakened or “killed” virus, to be tested on hundreds of people.
Some 3,000 volunteers will be taking part in clinical trials to be carried out in St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city, and Kirov, a city in western Russia, some 900km northeast of Moscow. The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products, which developed the vaccine, shared the latest information with Russia’s RBK daily newspaper on Tuesday.
The Center noted that the trials “will meet the requirements of the World Health Organization and international regulators,” while providing researchers “with a reliable volume of scientific data.”
The volunteers will be isolated in a hospital setting and monitored for 16 days after taking the shot. The trials are expected to wrap up in November, according to Aidar Ishmukhametov, the director of the center.
The immunization is the so-called “whole-virion” vaccine, based on a destroyed or artificially weakened virus particle which is incapable of causing a disease.
This type of vaccine is generally deemed to be low-risk for people whose immune systems are already compromised.
This is the third Russian Covid-19 vaccine to be approved for large-scale human trials. The final trial of Russia’s pioneering Sputnik V vaccine, officially registered on August 11, is in full swing. Some 60,000 people volunteered to be immunized with the inoculation, developed by Moscow’s renowned Gamaleya Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported earlier this week.
EpiVacCorona, another Russian vaccine designed by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, is currently in the process of registration. It has been undergoing Phase II trials since mid-August.
