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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia’s Chumakov center to double CoviVac jab’s production capacity

On February 19, the Russian Health Ministry registered the whole-virion CoviVac vaccine, developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences

© Yelena Afonina/TASS

MOSCOW, September 23. / TASS /. Russia’s Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products has finished upgrading its equipment, which is going to boost the production capacity of the CoviVac jab, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science said on Thursday.

"Overall, roughly 1.5 mln doses were put into civilian circulation, and another 2.5 mln doses are planned to be released by the end of the year. The upgrading of the manufacturing has been successful and has been finished as scheduled. We have already launched vaccine production using new equipment, which will enable the center to increase its capacity by 2-2.5 times. Therefore, we believe that in the near future, CoviVac will become much more accessible to all Russian citizens," the center’s Director General Aydar Ishmukhametov stated.

On Thursday, the Kommersant newspaper said that CoviVac’s production had been suspended for several months. The Chumakov center closed in order to upgrade the plant where the raw materials are produced. As a result, this jab has been on hold since late August.

On February 19, the Russian Health Ministry registered the whole-virion CoviVac vaccine, developed by the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This type of jab uses either artificially weakened viruses that cannot cause disease, or viruses that have already been killed (inactivated).

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