Preclinical trials confirm efficacy and safety of FMBA's Covid-19 vaccine - FMBA head

ODINTSOVO. Sept 29 (Interfax) - The efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Russia's Federal Medical-Biological Agency (FMBA) were confirmed during the vaccine's preclinical trials, FMBA head Veronika Skvortsova said.

"The preclinical trials have confirmed the efficacy and safety of this vaccine," Skvortsova told reporters on Wednesday at the opening ceremony for the Microfabrication Technology Center in Odintsovo.

At the same time, the FMBA "perfectly understands that no animal models or cell culture models can be fully approximated for humans," she said.

"Therefore, we are conducting the clinical trials in a most thorough way," Skvortsova said.

The vaccine's Phase I and Phase II clinical trials are currently ongoing, she said.

On July 19, the FMBA received the Russian Health Ministry's permission to carry out the Phase I and Phase II clinical trials of its Covid-19 vaccine.

The new vaccine is primarily meant to induce cellular immunity, using coronavirus conservative proteins the least prone to mutations as the target, the agency said at the time.

The new vaccine will be administered in two shots at an interval of three weeks, the FMBA press service told Interfax.