20 Mar 2020 21:47

Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency expects to obtain coronavirus vaccine in 11 months, 3 prototypes developed

MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - The Russian Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) is planning to complete the development of a vaccine against the new coronavirus in 11 months, FMBA Director Veronika Skvortsova said.

"We will have a ready vaccine in eleven months," the FMBA quoted Skvortsova as saying on Friday.

The FMBA expects to obtain first results of tests of a vaccine against the coronavirus in June 2020 and plans to complete the second stage of the tests by the start of the third quarter of 2020.

Pre-clinical studies will take up to six months, and the first phase of the clinical trials will take up to five months. The second and third phases of clinical trials usually take up to 15 months, but, if a World Health Organization protocol is applied, phases 2 and 3 may be skipped, it said.

The FMBA has developed three vaccine prototypes and has started testing its potency on mice, it said.