Russia hopes to start industrial production of two vaccines against the coronavirus in September and October respectively, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova announced on Wednesday (July 29th). Two vaccines designed by Russian researchers " are the most promising today ," said Golikova, during a videoconference meeting with President Vladimir Putin, devoted to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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The first is developed by the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Nikolai Gamaleïa Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. It is already being tested on humans, according to Tatiana Golikova. " The launch of its industrial production is planned for September 2020 ", after certification and additional clinical trials on 1,600 people, she said.
The second vaccine is being designed at the Siberian Vektor Research Center and is also undergoing clinical trials to be completed in September, before certification the same month, Golikova said. First doses could be produced " in October 2020 ", she added.
200 million doses
For his part, Mr Putin argued that there are currently "a lot more " Russian vaccines being developed, but stressed that the certainty of their effectiveness must be " absolute " before proceeding with the vaccinations.
Russia, fourth in the world for the number of contaminations after the United States, Brazil and India, announced in April its desire to be among the first countries, if not the very first, to create a vaccine against virus.
Before the end of the year, Russia hopes to produce with its partners 200 million doses of a vaccine against the coronavirus, if the clinical trials are successful, assured last week Kirill Dmitriev, the president of the Russian Sovereign Fund which finances vaccine development at the Nikolaï Gamaleïa Center. To date, this country has officially recorded 828,990 cases of coronavirus, including 13,673 deaths.