The Russian Ambassador to Nicaragua, Alexandr Jojólikov has confirmed that the Nicaraguan made Vaccine CoviVac will begin coming off the production line in Managua in January 2022.
As reported in Nica-Biz in October 2021, Russia had transferred the technology for one of its Covid-19 vaccines to Nicaragua. It was later reported (at the VI International Pharmaceutical Congress) that it will be for the Nicaraguan made Vaccine CoviVac.
The vaccine is being manufactured at the Mechnikov Institute Laboratory in Managua, Nicaragua in cooperation with the Chumakov Center in Russia.
Currently, the Chumakov Center is among the world leaders in medical virology, including the studies of poliomyelitis and other enterovirus infections, tick-borne encephalitis, coronavirus, and viral hepatitis. The Chumakov Center has its own biotechnological vaccine production line for the inoculation calendar.
The ambassador said “We hope that starting next month, in January, we will supply this vaccine to the Nicaraguan population and also to export it”.
What is CoviVac
Most of what’s known about the third Russian vaccine has come from Russian health authorities.
CoviVAc is an “inactivated vaccine” and the manufacturing process follows a more traditional technology. As with Sputnik V, it’s a double dose vaccine, however CoviVac is administered 14 days apart.
It is claimed to be 80% effective, with another plus being that it only needs a storage temperature of between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius, making it easier to transport, store and use at locations where it is being administered.
Flu shot
Ambassador Jojólikov also announced that as well as the CoviVac vaccine, the Russian/Nicaraguan laboratory is working on other medicines, including a regular flu vaccine.
Managua Laboratory
Known as the Mechnikov Laboratory, it is operated by “The Latin American Institute of Biotechnology MECHNIKOV, S.A.”, a Russia/Nicaragua joint enterprise. (El Instituto Latinoamericano de Biotecnología MECHNIKOV, S.A.)
The business plan, long before Covid-19 came along, was to “produce vaccines against influenza as well as medicines against diseases and infections that will cover the domestic demand and those of other Latin American and Caribbean countries”.
The laboratory is named after the Russian microbiologist Ilía Ilich Mechnikov, the US $21 million plant was funded with US $14 million from Russia and US $7 million from Nicaraguan.
