MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Russia has registered its third coronavirus vaccine named CoviVac developed by the Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Saturday.

"I want to start with some very good news. Today we are documenting that the third vaccine, CoviVac, has been registered. It was developed by the Chumakov Center," he said at a meeting on vaccines.

"The first 120,000 doses will be put into civilian circulation as early as mid-March," he said.

Russia is currently the only country that has three COVID-19 vaccines, Mishustin stressed.

Three domestic vaccines

On August 11, 2020, Russia registered the world’s first coronavirus vaccine dubbed Sputnik V developed by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology. EpiVacCorona developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology became the first registered Russian COVID-19 vaccine in October 2020.

CoviVac developed by the Chumakov Center is an inactivated whole-virion vaccine. Whole-virion vaccines are based either on artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or killed (inactivated) viruses.

Chumakov Center

The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences was created on the basis of the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Virus Encephalitis of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. Member 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.