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Coronavirus pandemic

Vector Center’s vaccine effective against a number of coronavirus mutations

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day issued an instruction to the government to analyze the efficacy of Russian vaccines against new coronavirus strains

MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. EpiVacCorona, a coronavirus vaccine developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, is effective against the South African, British and Brazilian mutations of the coronavirus, the Russian sanitary watchdog told TASS on Monday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the day issued an instruction to the government to analyze the efficacy of Russian vaccines against new coronavirus strains.

Read also

Putin orders Cabinet to analyze efficacy of Russian vaccines against new COVID-19 strains

"Mutations characteristic of new coronavirus strains (British, South African, Brazilian) do not affect epitopes chosen for the peptide vaccine EpiVacCorona. The vaccine’s peptides are highly conservative," it said.

Apart from that, the center keeps a close eye on the mutations capable of affecting the vaccine’s efficacy.

On July 24, 2020, the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology received a Russian health ministry permit for clinical trials of its anti-coronavirus vaccine on volunteers. The first volunteer was inoculated on July 27. The vaccine’s clinical trials were completed on September 30. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on October 14 that the Vector-developed vaccine had received registration. On November 16, the health ministry issued a permit for post-registration trials of the vaccine on volunteers older than 60 and a permit for tests on 3,000 volunteers above the age of 18 was issued on November 18.

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