MOSCOW, July 29. /TASS/. Mass production of a vaccine against the coronavirus which is being developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology may start at the end of 2020 or the beginning of 2021, Ilnaz Imatdinov, one of the developers and a laboratory chief at Vector said on Wednesday in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel.

"According to the data I am familiar with, after registration of vaccine preparations the industrial partners are ready to organize production release of the preparation. If I am not mistaken, this is as soon as the end of this year or the beginning of the next one," he said.

Ilnaz Imatdinov specified that this concerns the peptide vaccine which doesn’t contain a biological agent.

Clinical trials

The Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology plans to increase the number of volunteers testing the vaccine against the novel coronavirus up to 100 people, Ilnaz Imatdinov revealed.

"This is a placebo-controlled study where five [volunteers] are intentionally injected with a vaccine, and others receive a placebo. In the future, the number of volunteers will be increased to a hundred," he said.

According to the researcher, the sampling of five volunteers at the first stage of clinical trials is enough to evaluate the safety and the effectiveness of a vaccine. "Currently <…> the vaccine preparation has demonstrated complete safety," he noted.

Earlier the sanitary watchdog reported that the Vector Center received Russia’s Healthcare Ministry’s permit to conduct clinical trials of the vaccine on volunteers. As of July 28, the first of them, according to the agency’s press service, was inoculated while the second one is to be vaccinated in 72 hours.