MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Russia’s Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for the Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences hopes to receive a license for the use of its CoviVac coronavirus vaccine in children in 2022, the center’s director, Aidar Ishmukhametov, told TASS on Monday.
"We have received a license for clinical tests of the CoviVac inactive vaccine in children and adolescents aged from three to 17. Our center specializes in the development of children’s vaccines and is the vaccine supplier for the national vaccination schedule. It has a reputation of a reliable manufacturer of safe and light substances for vaccination. After the clinical trials, we hope to obtain a license for the use of our coronavirus vaccine for children already this year," he said.
The Russian health ministry earlier issued a license for the third phase of CoviVac clinical tests in children. According to the minister’s state register, the double-blind placebo-controlled trials of the CoviVac vaccine developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for the Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences will involve 1,050 volunteers and will be conducted at four medical institutions in Perm, Samara, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg.
According to Ishmukhametov, the CoviVac vaccine was developed on the platform of the dead polio vaccine, which is used in children from three months of age. "We hope our children’s vaccine will be in demand on the Russian and global markets," he said.
The CoviVac whole-virion coronavirus vaccine developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products, commonly referred to as the Chumakov Center, was registered in Russia on February 19, 2021. Whole-virion vaccines are based either on artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or dead (inactivated) viruses.
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.