Members of Siberian Science Polis Research and Production Cluster in the fight against the COVID-19

State scientific centre of Virology and Biotechnology “Vector”, Vector-Best, JSC and Medical Biological Union Group have made a great contribution to the development of measures to countering the new coronavirus infection by means of their developments of test systems and vaccines.

“Vector” is one of the largest scientific virological and biotechnological centres in Russia and a key member of Siberian Science Polis Research and Production Cluster. In the situation of counteracting coronavirus, the “Vector” does not stop hard work. Every day, the centre’s specialists not only process many tests for coronavirus from all over Russia, but also develop the necessary vaccine for the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic.

Currently, immunogenicity studies of prototype vaccines are being conducted on laboratory animals. During these studies the composition, dose and
injection methodof the COVID-19 vaccine will be determined. Clinical trials on volunteers will begin in June.

If the vaccine turns out to be effective at this stage, it will be possible to proceed to the next step: “Vector” expects to register the vaccine in September.

Previously, “Vector” developed special test systems that allow detecting the disease at an early stage, which is extremely important for diagnostics. The method of PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is used to determine the coronavirus. It can be used on the laboratory base, which most laboratories in the country are equipped with.

Also in the fight against coronavirus is another member of the Siberian Science Polis Research and Production Cluster – “Vector-best”, JSC – the largest Russian manufacturer of reagent kits for laboratory diagnostics. At the moment, the company produces the entire range of products for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus: kits for determining RNA and IgG and IgM antibodies.

Medical Biological Union developed the first Russian express test that allows determining the presence of coronavirus with an accuracy of more than 94% using standard equipment.

The method is based on loop isothermal amplification. Its use reduces the analysis time by more than three times and takes down the possibility of mixing samples by reducing the number of prearrangement stages.

The company’s laboratory is located in the Technopark of Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. It is designed for three thousand tests per day. According to the developers, the analysis takes half an hour after the sample arrives in the laboratory.

It allows increasing the throughput of laboratory equipment and increasing the number of performed studies by more than 3 times, compared with current methods. This technology has been registered with the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare.