The EpiVacCorona coronavirus vaccine, developed by Russia’s State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology Vector, has been approved for people over 60, the national consumer health watchdog said in a statement on Friday.
"The EpiVacCorona vaccine has successfully finished phase three and four clinical trials among people over the age of 60. The trials proved that it is effective and safe for elderly people. That said, EpiVacCorona has been approved for people aged over 60," TASS cited the statement as saying.
Mass vaccination of adults kicked off in Russia on January 18. The country’s citizens can get inoculated for free with one of the two vaccines registered in the country, Spuntik V and EpiVacCorona.
On July 24, the Vector center received permission from the Russian Health Ministry to conduct clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine on volunteers. That phase of trials completed on September 30 and the vaccine was registered in mid-October. The Health Ministry granted permission to the center on November 16 to conduct post-registration trials on 150 volunteers over the age of 60, and permission to carry out trials on 3,000 volunteers aged over 18 was issued on November 18.
