State-owned Russian news channel Rossiya 24 took a rare look on 7 April inside Russia's production of vaccines, including the Health Ministry's Gamaleya National Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology (NITsEM) and its work against infectious viruses.
The 15-minute special report titled "Immunity Code - how Russia develops modern vaccines", presented by correspondent Alexei Fyodorov, opened with Gamaleya's medical staff relating how they worked around the clock in the Covid pandemic of 2020 to develop a vaccine.
"In 2020, the words 'virus' and 'vaccine' were no longer words from a textbook. There was just one question then - how to survive the pandemic. Now it's broader - how well can our country develop vaccines, from children's vaccines to cancer vaccines and anti-allergy treatments," the narrator said.
Fyodorov visited Gamaleya's labs, which he said worked with live viruses to develop knowledge about them and forecast imminent outbreaks. "The centre has one of the world's largest collection of viruses", he said, "including swine flu, encephalitis, West Nile virus, and they are all stored here in special conditions at minus 80 degrees."
Inna Shulyakova, captioned as a laboratory head at Gamaleya, explained how the virus collection was maintained so that if an outbreak looked likely, then research work could start on the virus in order to develop a vaccine, which would initially be tested on animals (footage showed caged mice).
Anna Ilyukhina, a virologist at Gamaleya since August 2020, related how she was pitched into the midst of urgent Covid vaccine development right after graduating from higher education. As soon as a trials vaccine was developed, the virologists tested it on themselves first, the report said.
The report went on to explain how viruses were studied, breaking down their DNA and RNA to understand their make up and determine a weakness to combat. The centre is now studying use of matrix ribonucleic acid (MRNK) to combat viruses like HIV which rapidly mutate.
Vladimir Gushchin, Gamaleya's deputy director, explained that the classic approach to developing a vaccine was to use the infectious agent itself to develop antibodies, which he said was "slow and expensive". Use of MRNK vaccine technology, however, will allow researchers to take out a precisely-selected antigen to form the vaccine, which given an immune response, will provide full protection.
The report then visited the Nanolek pharmacology plant in Kirov Region, which produces vaccines using the classic recombinant method, including a vaccine against human papillomavirus (VPCh). Fyodorov showed a vial of seed culture material in a few millilitres of liquid, which was then taken to a bio-reactor to be fermented into a mixture of billions of viruses. The report showed workers at the plant wearing biosafety costumes.
The plant is producing Tsegardex, Russia's first vaccine against papillomavirus. The aim is to make Russia independent of imports and give the country its own protection against cancer, the report said. Alexei Yekimov, director of the pharmaceutical innovations scientific-production, said there were four most common strains of the virus, known as the sixth, eleventh, sixteenth and eighteenth. Tsegardex is a combination of four proteins which are similar in makeup to those on the surface of the papillomavirus, and will protect people from it.
Nikita Sveryugin, head of production for dry and liquid medicines, demonstrated how the finished vaccine was produced. The firm is investing 7.5 billion roubles in the project (almost $100 million) and aims to produce 600,000 doses of vaccine this year, rising to 4.2 million the following year, the report said.
The report then showed the Fort (Natsimbio holding, part of Rostec corporation) pharmaceutical plant in Ryazan making a more traditional product - influenza vaccine. This plant also produces vaccines against measles, German measles and paratyphoid. The report stressed that the vaccines are tested rigorously by the plant itself and by external monitoring at Federal Healthcare Surveillance Service Rosdravnadzor to check they are safe and effective.
The report then looked at research underway at the GNTs (State Science Centre) Immunology Institute to make the first vaccine which will "reprogramme" patients against allergy to pollen released by birch trees (which is a common cause of immune-response issues in Russia in spring). Third-stage trials in mice are now underway, the report said.
Vladimir Poklad, department director at a consulting-audit company, said the Russian vaccine market in 2025 was worth around $50 million. While in 2022, around 40% of Russia's vaccines were imported, by 2024 that had fallen to around 25%, he said. By 2030, 90% of the vaccines on the Russian market will be domestically-produced according to experts, the report said.
Leyla Namazova-Baranova, President of the Russian Paediatric Union, said the move back to domestic production of vaccines was a welcome step "from the viewpoint of Russia's national security."
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