Vector Center applies to register Russia's first smallpox medication

MOSCOW. Aug 8 (Interfax) - The Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology of Russia's consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has applied to the Russian Health Ministry to register Russia's first smallpox medication, NIOCH-14, according to the state register of medicines.

The Vector Center told Interfax earlier that the NIOCH-14 medication demonstrated safety and efficacy in countering all kinds of orthopoxviruses, including monkeypox, during pre-clinical trials on animal subjects such as mice and woodchucks, and that the first stage of clinical trials of the drug involved 90 volunteers.

NIOCH-14 was developed and patented by Rospotrebnadzor's Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology together with the Vorozhtsov Novosibirsk Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Siberia branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Vector Center director Rinat Maksyutov said in late April that the NIOCH-14 smallpox medication was expected to be registered in 2022.