After coming up with an allegedly successful COVID-19 vaccine in August this year, Russia is set to register another Coronavirus vaccine by mid-October. This news was made public by Russian consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor. The new candidate for Coronavirus is named EpiVacCorona and is developed by watchdog’s State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector.
The potential vaccine has just finished its early-stage human trials last week. Rospotrebnadzor has stated that there will be an examination of documents for the registration of the vaccine candidate EpiVacCorona, decided by the Ministry of Health of the country. The registration process will be finished before October 15, 2020.
As per the reports, Rospotrebnadzor has decided to hold a clinical trial of the new vaccine candidate after the completion of the registration procedure of the vaccine. According to consumer safety watchdog, people above the age group of 60 will be volunteering for the clinical trials. People with chronic illnesses will also be included in the trials.
They will also be conducting placebo-controlled clinical trials on nearly 5,000 adult volunteers belonging to different age groups after the registration is fully processed. Russian consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has confirmed that commercial production of the vaccine EpiVacCorona will be handed over to Vector Institute. The earlier COVID-19 vaccine created by Russia was called Sputnik V and it has already gained regulatory approval from the Russian authorities.
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) has joined forces with India’s multinational pharmaceutical company Dr. Reddy’s to supply 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Sputnik V to India. And RDIF has also decided to cooperate on the clinical trials in India. Russia confirmed that they will start delivering the vaccine in late 2020 after successful clinical trials and gaining regulatory approval from Indian authorities.
According to the study published in The Lancet earlier this month, Sputnik V has shown no serious side effects after 42 days of the two early-phase non-randomized trials. The vaccine has stimulated antibody responses within only 21 days. As per the renowned medical journal the two-part vaccine is made of a recombinant adenovirus type 26 (rAd26) vector and a recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd5) vector. The doctors have conducted clinical trials for the vaccine.
According to the statement made by the journal, the human adenoviral vector platform that is the major factor of the vaccine has been proved to be safe after it has been validated in more than 250 clinical studies over decades. It is also verified that it does not have any long-term negative effects on humans.
