BRIEF—Russia plans to start series production of new vaccine against coronavirus in 1.5 years

Russia will need about 1.5-2.5 years in order to create a vaccine against coronavirus and launch it into a series production, according to recent statements made by Dmitry Lioznov, an acting Director of the Smorodintsev Research Institute of Influenza, one of Russia’s leading research institutions in the field of influenza treatment.

According to Dr Lioznov, despite the fact that the development of vaccine is usually a quick process for scientists, it is followed by the long procedure of its pre-clinical studies on animals as well as studies on volunteers.

So far, scientists at the Smorodintsev Institute have already completed the decoding of the COVID-19 genome taken from the biomaterial of a Russian patient and are ready to begin its pre-clinical studies.

Dr Lioznov comments: “Now it’s difficult to say how much the strain, deciphered in Russia differs from the first sample of the coronavirus, deciphered in China. Now the WHO genetics bank has sequences of several hundred samples obtained in different countries. The variability of the virus, its evolution is necessary both for predicting its spread and for creating an effective vaccine and drugs, but comparing the gene structure of different strains, taken from different patients is s laborious process, which requires the use of special computer programs. This work is ongoing."