Russia has already registered the vaccine Sputnik V, in August, and EpiVacCorona, licensed in October.
She has just registered a third, also intended to fight against Covid-19 and this time named “Kovivak.
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This registration is the preliminary step to the final phase of clinical trials, the Prime Minister announced on Saturday, promising to speed up production rates.
“From the middle of March, the first 120,000 doses (of the third vaccine) will be put into circulation.
Today, Russia is the only country where there are already three vaccines, ”said Mikhail Michoustine, during a government meeting broadcast on television.
Called "Kovivak", this third vaccine was designed by the Choumakov Research Center in Moscow.
Since January, it has been carrying out a massive vaccination campaign for its population.
The first vaccine, the early announcement of which has raised doubts within the scientific community, recently received recognition for its effectiveness in a study published by the medical journal The Lancet, validated by independent experts.
It is now authorized in more than twenty countries.
Trials on 3000 people
The Russian authorities are trying to make production agreements around the world, rather than exporting their vaccines, for lack of sufficient capacity to meet the national demand, which is a priority.
“We are speeding up vaccine production rates.
More than 10 million doses of Sputnik V have been produced, and around 80,000 of EpiVacCorona, ”Mikhail Michoustine said on Saturday.
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In Russia, the registration of the “Kovivak” means that it must now pass phase III of the tests, scheduled for March on 3,000 people, according to the Russian Ministry of Research.
Unlike the other two vaccines, the latter uses an inactivated virus, a more conventional technology.
The ministry specifies that it is, for the time being, only recommended for people aged 18 to 60 years.
According to the government's daily report, 4.13 million infections have been recorded in Russia, placing the country fourth in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.
But, for a long time, Russia has made public only partial statistics, counting only the deaths of Covid-19 identified as such after autopsy.
This number, the only one updated daily, stood at 82,396 on Wednesday, far from the more than 162,000 deaths recorded by the statistics agency as of December 31, 2020.