MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. The first 12,000 doses of EpiVacCorona-N vaccine have been released, the Vector center, the vaccine’s developer, announced on its Instagram page. The batch will be used for the third phase of clinical trials.

"For the first time, the first batch of EpiVacCorona-N (Aurora-CoV) has been officially registered. The first batch of 12,000 doses of Aurora-CoV vaccine released into public circulation is intended for clinical trials of the third phase," the statement says.

The developer said that the study involves 250 volunteers aged over 60 years old.

Russia’s Health Ministry registered the EpiVacCorona-N vaccine, developed by the Vector Center under the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor), on August 26, 2021.

Earlier, the center’s Director General Rinat Maksyutov, reported that there were no fundamental differences between EpiVacCorona-N and the previously developed EpiVacCorona. According to him, vaccines differ in technological characteristics of production, which has become the main reason for the need for new clinical trials to solve production problems that require small changes.