MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes any research and initiatives helping to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Melita Vujnovic, WHO Representative in Russia, told TASS on Saturday.

"WHO welcomes various kinds of research in the fight against COVID-19 and supports a variety of initiatives, but this issue is in the field of R & D discussions (which is outside the purview of the WHO office in Russia)," Vujnovic said.

On March 1, Veronika Skvortsova, the head of Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA), said that the agency was planning to complete phase one clinical trials of the Mir-19 by mid-March. According to Skvortsova, the drug is based on micro-RNA that blocks certain parts of the virus RNA.