The Chumakov Center is developing two vaccines against the coronavirus infection based on the Delta strain, Director of the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products of the Russian Academy of Sciences Aydar Ishmukhametov said.
"There are two vaccines being developed - CoviVac Delta Mono and CoviVac Combi based on the isolated coronavirus Delta strain. We are more inclined towards the second version and are awaiting the decision of the regulatory system on how the certification will be done. It has to be said that this can go by replacing blocks, similar to [the way it is done] with the flu virus, or it may be decided to do it as a new product. This will define both the approaches, its economics, and the deadlines which is very significant in our situation. Therefore, we are in correspondence, and the most important thing is that we have that Delta strain and the entire technology has been worked out on the previous strain, the modified Alpha one," he said.
The Chumakov Center developed its own whole-virion inactivated CoviVac vaccine. Either artificially weakened viruses incapable of causing a disease or dead (inactivated) viruses are used in whole-virion vaccines.
