MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products at the Russian Academy of Sciences has filed a bid for an international tender of the World Health Organization (WHO) for the delivery of the coronavirus vaccine, Center Head Aidar Ishmukhametov told TASS on Saturday.

"We have filed a bid for the WHO’s international tender for vaccine deliveries. It should be noted that the Chumakov Center is Russia’s sole supplier of vaccines that has passed a WHO audit and exports vaccines to more than 50 countries across the world," the scientist said.

"But I would like to say right away that the deliveries of the inactivated whole-virion vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 developed by the Chumakov Center to the international market will be possible only after Russia fully meets its needs for preventive preparations against COVID-19," he said.

Whole-virion vaccines are based either on artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or killed (inactivated) viruses. Ishmukhametov told TASS in late June that the Chumakov Center planned to complete the pre-clinical tests of its own coronavirus vaccine by early August and finish its clinical studies in January 2021.

The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products was created on the basis of the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Virus Encephalitis of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Mikhail Chumakov was the Institute’s founder and first director (until 1972).

Today the Chumakov Center is a leading world research organization in the sphere of medical virology.

The Chumakov Center has completed the pre-clinical tests of its coronavirus vaccine, Ishmukhametov said.

"We have successfully completed the pre-clinical tests of the inactivated whole-virion vaccine against COVID-19. The tests involved not only small rodents but also primates whose reaction to vaccination is maximally close to human response. The tests showed the vaccine’s high efficiency and safety," he said.