Russia reveals secret to shortening time to produce Covid-19 vaccine
Modern research methods allow to create prototype vaccines against possible emerging epidemic strains in advance, according to the Director of Russia's Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Alexander Gintsburg.
In an interview with Rossiya-1 TV, Mr. Gintsburg affirmed that modern methods could even help reduce the time to prepare a vaccine by 1 month if necessary.
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| Photo: Sputnik |
"Current genetic engineering methods allow for the creation of prototype vaccines against emerging epidemic strains, as we anticipate. These prototypes can be developed in advance and simply stored in a refrigerator like a special pharmaceutical. This could reduce the development time of a new vaccine to one month, or even less, instead of five months," the expert added.
Earlier, when talking to Russian news agency RT, Mr. Gintsburg said that valuable experience in researching vaccines against infectious diseases such as Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) helped Russian scientists find a Covid-19 vaccine faster than expected. He added that although the vaccine has only been prepared in less than 5 months, it is not "the kind that was prepared without any prior preparation."
“A whole generation of biotechnologists, virologists and immunologists… have spent over 20 years developing the technology used to create this vaccine along with at least six other drugs,” Gintsburg told RT.
The director of the Gamaleya Institute added that research on the GamEvac-Combi Ebola vaccine a few years ago was particularly useful in determining the ingredients and dosage of the vaccine. Experts also synthesized knowledge during the development of a vaccine against MERS, a disease that is "80% similar" to Covid-19 but much more dangerous.
The Russian Ministry of Health announced on August 15 that it will begin mass production of the Covid-19 vaccine called Sputnik V, a product of the Gamaleya Institute.
Faced with doubts about the safety and the short development time of the vaccine, Mr. Gintsburg affirmed that this biological product was researched and manufactured according to strict current Russian regulations. Although the time was shortened, no safety procedures were omitted.
