Second Russian COVID-19 Vaccine Receives Approval, Third One Coming Soon

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, researchers and scientists around the world have been racing to develop a vaccine that can take down the coronavirus.

Vaccine makers are trying to come up with the most effective vaccines that meet regulatory approvals.

However, while other vaccines are still in their human trials, Russia launched the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world, called “Sputnik V.” Russian citizens started receiving the vaccine in August.

Reuters reports that President Putin of Russian has recently announced that the country has approved another COVID-19 vaccine called EpiVacCorona. The announcement was delivered during a press conference. The EpiVacCorona vaccine was registered under the Novosibirsk-based Vektor Centre.

Vector Institute from Siberia was in charge of developing the vaccine. In September, the vaccine successfully went through human trials’ initial stages. However, the results weren’t published. The vaccine has yet to enter its final Phase III trials.

Putin added that Russia needed to increase its production for the first as well as the second vaccine by cooperating with its foreign partners and promote its vaccines abroad.

According to Russian authorities, compared to the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, this new vaccine uses a different tech. While the Sputnik V used an adenovirus vector, the EpiVacCorona makes use of a synthetic peptide vector, which is safer.

In its early stage, the vaccine was tested among 100 volunteers. The trials lasted over two months and just completed. The volunteers were from 18 to 60 years old. The scientists plan to carry out a broader study with 40,000 volunteers in November.

But EpiVacCorona isn’t the only vaccine to receive approval after Sputnik V. Putin has stated that another vaccine is being developed at St Petersburg-based Chumakov Institute. The vaccine is expected to enter early clinical trials this month with 300 volunteers.

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