The World Health Organization (WHO) has included the first Russian-developed product in the list of COVID-19 candidate vaccines. This refers to a candidate vaccine developed by the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Vaccines and Serums of FMBA of Russia, which is a recombinant protein based on epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 surface S-protein. At the moment, the first stage of animal testing has been completed at SPbSRIVS. The vaccine has proved to induce a SARS-CoV-2-specific immune response. The strategy pursued by the SPbSRIVS of FMBA of Russia is remarkable for the continuous development of candidate vaccines throughout the trial period, up to introducing them to practical application, with simultaneous elaboration of assessment procedures for the immune response, protein and antibodies assays.
The chosen platform (recombinant proteins) has already been successfully introduced in the global healthcare practice, which significantly improves the chances to develop an effective and safe medication for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and, what’s more, facilitates its industrial production for mass immunization. To that end, the enterprise of FMBA of Russia in Krasnoe Selo is now boosting its facilities. The list of COVID-19 candidate vaccines by WHO: https://www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/Novel-Coronavirus_Landscape_nCoV-4april20... Note: the list of candidate vaccines is compiled by the WHO experts monitoring the ongoing research globally. The WHO requests documents (trial results), conducts analysis and then makes a decision whether or not to include a particular ongoing development in the list, thus actually confirming its viability.
