The entire world is racing towards finding a vaccine for the deadly COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus Pandemic that has been ravaging all the countries for nearly a year now. Russia became the first country in the world when it announced the approval for its vaccine Sputnik V, named after the popular Soviet satellite! The Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed the vaccine by revealing that one of his daughters had been inoculated with it. However, there were still concerns from the rest of the medical community as Sputnik V had not completed the mandatory Phase 3 human clinical trials, which are needed to confirm the efficacy of any vaccine. However, Russia continued emphasising that the vaccine was safe and even offered to help other countries with this vaccine, which was jointly developed by the Russian Ministry of Health and the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology. 

Russia announced the registering of Sputnik V on August 11th, this year. Now, it has announced the registering of its second COVID-19 vaccine - EpiVacCorona. It has given regulatory approval to this vaccine, after early-stage studies itself. In a televised meeting with government officials of various agencies, President Vladimir Putin announced Russia registering its second COVID vaccine. In this meeting, Putin also announced that Russia would soon be registering its third Corona Virus vaccine, which is being developed by the Chumkov Centre, in the near future. He also reiterated the need to increase production of Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona and make it a priority to supply the Russian market with them.

EpiVacCorona has been developed by the Vector State Research Centre of Virology and Biotechnology. In an early-stage research, 100 volunteers were tested in placebo-controlled human trials. The trials lasted more than 2 months and finished just two weeks back. All the volunteers were aged between 18 and 60! EpiVacCorona is a 2-shot vaccine and relies on chemically synthesized peptide antigens of SARS-CoV-2 proteins, which have been conjugated to a carrier protein and adsorbed on an aluminium-containing adjuvant. All these details were also posted on a database of privately and publicly funded clinical studies from around the world. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova revealed that she had tested the EpiVacCorona herself and had not experienced any side effects. Reports state that the Vector Centre has initiated post-registration clinical trials across Russia, said to involve 40,000 volunteers! Stay tuned for updates...