Russia's Chumakov Center plans to start Phase 3 trials of CoviVac vaccine in several weeks - general director
MOSCOW. May 25 (Interfax) - Phase 3 clinical trials of the Covid-19 whole-virion vaccine CoviVac may begin in a couple of weeks, according to Aidar Ishmukhametov, general director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Chumakov Federal Center for Research and Development of Immune-and-Biological Products, the vaccine's developer.
"It is up to the Health Ministry to make this decision. We submitted [documents to start Phase 3 trials of the CoviVac vaccine], we were asked additional questions, as it usually happens, and we answered them. We are now awaiting its decision. I think that we will start Phase 3 trials of CoviVac in a week or two," Ishmukhametov said in an interview published in the Izvestia newspaper on Tuesday.
The vaccine's Phase 3 clinical trials will "involve volunteers over 60 years of age and another three groups of people suffering from different illnesses such as cancer, autoimmune diseases and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," he said.
"This is our next task. We have requested more than 3,000 or so volunteers, but this number will probably be increased," the scientist said.
Interfax reported earlier that Russia has registered four Covid-19 vaccines to date: the Sputnik V and Sputnik Light vector-based vaccines developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, the EpiVacCorona peptide-based vaccine by the Rospotrebnadzor's Novosibirsk-based Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology, and the Chumakov Center's CoviVac whole-virion vaccine.
