MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The coronavirus vaccine developed by the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Health Ministry may enter production for civilian circulation a month after the launch of the third stage (post-registration) of the research, the center’s Director Alexander Gintsburg told TASS.
However, not all Russian citizens will be able to get the vaccine at once, he stressed.
"The civilian production will be launched in parallel [with post-registration research] but with some delay because there is not enough vaccine…I think this will be a delay of one month at maximum after the post-registration research begins," Gintsburg said.
Earlier, Gintsburg told TASS that several tens of thousands of people would take part in the third stage of the research. The scientist explained that the excessive amount of the vaccine would be sent for civilian circulation and this could be enough for several Russian regions.
The scientist said it was difficult to predict how many doses of the drug could be produced in the coming weeks because the production would be expanded. Thanks to the money allocated by the Russian government on the president’s order the production capacity will grow 10-fold in the coming 1.5 or 2 months, Gintsburg noted.
"In the near future 3-4 more facilities will be launched and by December they will produce 4 mln-5 mln doses per month or a bit more and this will allow to ensure the necessary amount of the vaccine for the entire country for 9-12 months," the scientist said.
On August 11, Russia registered the world’s first vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine, dubbed Sputnik V, was developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, and its clinical trials were successfully completed in June-July. It was created on a platform that had been used for the development of a number of other vaccines. On August 15, the Health Ministry announced that the production of the vaccine had been launched.