OREANDA-NEWS. Belarus has received a "candidate version" of its own vaccine against coronavirus infection COVID-19, its safety is to be assessed and clinical trials carried out, said on Friday the Deputy Minister of Health - Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Republic Alexander Tarasenko.

Earlier on Friday, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced that the country had received its own vaccine against COVID-19.

"We have now obtained a candidate vaccine - the so-called" vaccine in a test tube. "We have gone along the path of creating a vaccine of the classic type - killed whole virion. This technology has been well tested - it has been used for more than a century. Its main advantage is the presence in the vaccine of a complete set of antigens necessary for the development of an immune response. This is an inactivated vaccine, in which there is no threat of restoring the pathogenic properties of the virus, "the press service of the Ministry of Health quotes Tarasenko in his Telegram channel.

According to the Deputy Minister, this type of vaccine is well studied, has little reactogenic and there are no long-term adverse reactions and consequences for it.

Tarasenko also pointed out that the disadvantage of the vaccine obtained in Belarus is the laboriousness and long development time in comparison, for example, with vector vaccines. 

Among the advantages of the vaccine, Tarasenko called the possibility, if necessary, to quickly change its composition if significant changes in the properties of circulating viruses are detected, since "the technology allows different variants of the virus to be included in a vaccine preparation."