Russia’s EpiVacCorona vaccine has been authorised for seniors aged 60 and over, the national consumer rights protection watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, announced on Friday.
"As a result of studies that have confirmed vaccine immunogenicity and safety for senior patients, the EpiVacCorona vaccine has been approved for use in people over 60 years of age," Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement.
The vaccine is a peptide-based drug that relies on a synthetic platform. Artificially-synthesised short fragments of viral proteins - peptides, which are contained in the vaccine, help the immune system learn how to recognise and then neutralise the virus.
The Russian authorities announced earlier this month that the country has already produced 80,000 doses of EpiVacCorona.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Russia has taken the lead in the race to develop a vaccine, creating three different jabs: Sputnik V, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute; EpiVacCorona by the Siberian research centre Vector; and the Chumakov Research Institute's CoviVac.