MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences will submit an application to register its vaccine against the coronavirus in late January - early February 2021 and simultaneously will launch Phase Three of trials of the vaccine, Deputy Director General of the Center Konstantin Chernov said in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel on Tuesday.

"We are going to submit [the paperwork] to register the vaccine in late January - early February. <…> And simultaneously with that we will launch Phase Three [of clinical trials] in order to register it already not according to the provisional government decree No. 441 but according to the permanent federal law No. 61," he said.

The scientist noted that publishing of the results of trials of the vaccine by the Chumakov Center may be delayed by 2-3 weeks due to an increased number of test subjects and the involvement of new research centers in the process. "We decided to double the population [of test subjects], engage another research center in Yekaterinburg, <...> as well as in St. Petersburg, Kirov and Novosibirsk," he added.

The Chumakov Federal Scientific Center was created on the basis of the Institute of Poliomyelitis and Viral Encephalitides of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences. Its founder and the Institute’s first director (until 1972) was member of the Soviet Academy of Medical Sciences Mikhail Chumakov. Currently the Center is among the world leaders in medical virology, including enterovirus infections, tick-borne encephalitis, coronavirus, and viral hepatitis. The Center has its own biotechnological vaccine production line. The Center has developed its own whole-virion inactivated vaccine against the coronavirus. The preparation has already successfully passed pre-clinical trials and is currently undergoing clinical trials. Either artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or dead (inactivated) viruses are used in whole-virion vaccines.