Russia said Monday that it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) vaccine next month and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.
The country is pushing ahead with several vaccine prototypes and one trialled by the Gamaleya institute in Moscow has reached advanced stages of development and is about to pass state registration, officials said. “We are very much counting on starting mass production in September,” Industry Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview published by state news agency TASS. “We will be able to ensure production volumes of several hundred thousand a month, with an eventual increase to several million by the start of next year,” he said, adding that one developer is preparing production technology at three locations in central Russia.
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The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which finances the trials, said he expects official registration of the vaccine to be complete “within ten days.” “If this happens in the next ten days, we will be ahead not just of the United States but other countries too, it will be the first registered coronavirus vaccine,” RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev said in televised remarks.
Another vaccine, developed by Siberia-based Vektor lab, is currently undergoing clinical trials and two more will begin human testing within the next two months, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Saturday. Gamaleya’s vaccine is a so-called viral vector vaccine, meaning it employs another virus to carry the DNA encoding the needed immune response into cells.
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Gamaleya’s vaccine is based on the adenovirus, a similar technology to the vaccine prototype developed by China’s CanSino, currently in the advanced stage of clinical trials.
