We are counting heavily on the launch of mass production in September: Minister (Representation)
Moscow:
Russia on Monday announced plans to start mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and produce “several million” doses per month by next year.
The country is moving forward with several prototype vaccines and one tested by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow has reached advanced stages of development and is on the verge of passing state registration, officials said.
“We are counting very much on the launch of mass production in September,” Industry Minister Denis Manturov said in an interview published by the official TASS news agency.
“We will be able to ensure production volumes of several hundred thousand per month, with a possible increase to several million by the start of next year,” he said, adding that a developer is preparing production technology at three sites in central Russia.
The head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is funding the trials, said he expects the official registration of the vaccine to be complete “within ten days.”
“If this happens in the next ten days, we will be ahead not only of the United States, but also of other countries, it will be the first vaccine against the coronavirus on record,” said RDIF chief Kirill Dmitriev in televised remarks.
Another vaccine, developed by the Siberian-based laboratory Vektor, is currently in clinical trials and two more will begin human testing in the next two months, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said on Saturday.
Gamaleya’s vaccine is a so-called viral vector vaccine, which means that it uses another virus to carry DNA encoding the necessary immune response into cells.
Gamaleya’s vaccine is based on adenovirus, a technology similar to the coronavirus vaccine prototype developed by Chinese company CanSino, which is currently in advanced clinical trials.
– “Who will buy it?” –
The state-run Gamaleya Institute has come under fire after researchers and its director injected themselves with the prototype several months ago, with scholars criticizing the move as an unorthodox and hasty way to launch trials on the ‘man.
Vitaly Zverev, head of the laboratory at the Mechnikov Institute for Vaccine and Serum Research, said it was too early to register a vaccine.
“I believe that a vaccine that is not properly controlled should not be registered, regardless of the country,” he said.
“It is impossible to ensure the safety of the vaccine in the time that has elapsed since the start of this pandemic,” he told AFP.
“You can do anything, but who will buy it?”
Zverev added that the three companies named as future producers of Russian vaccines are well-known pharmaceutical companies that normally do not manufacture vaccines, let alone high-tech vaccines using DNA technology.
“No adenovirus vaccine has been shown to be effective before,” he said. “How are they going to grow it? No one is explaining it.”
Moscow has dismissed claims by the UK, US and Canada that a Russian intelligence hacking group attempted to steal information about a coronavirus vaccine from Western labs.
With more than 850,000 infections, the number of coronavirus cases in Russia is currently the fourth in the world after the United States, Brazil and India.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
