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Coronavirus pandemic

Medical Biological Agency plans to finish pre-clinical trials of Covid vaccine in June

To date, three vaccines have been registered in Russia

© Alexander Shcherbak/TASS

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Mir-19 COVID-19 vaccine passes first stage of preclinical trials

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Medical Biological Agency (FMBA) expects to finish pre-clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine in June and to start clinical trials in July, the agency’s head, Veronika Skvortsova, told journalists on Thursday.

"We plan to finish the pre-clinical phase in June, in order to get to Phase I-II of clinical trials in July," she said.

To date, three vaccines have been registered in Russia: Sputnik V by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry, EpiVacCorona developed by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing as well as CoviVac created by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All three are two-component vaccines. The second component of Sputnik V is administered after 21 days, EpiVacCorona is injected with an interval of no less than 14-21 days, while CoviVac is introduced with an interval of 14 days.

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