Novosibirsk has already created a technological element base for mRNA synthesis by 2020. Having such a base, it is possible to develop an analog of Pfizer's and Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines in a matter of weeks, Vladimir Rikhter, head of the biotechnology laboratory at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Gazeta.Ru in an interview. He also explained why Russia did not follow this path when the COVID-19 pandemic started, why mRNA vaccines are better, and why the country needs to develop in this direction.

- With the onset of the pandemic, a worldwide vaccine race emerged, which our Sputnik V won, becoming the first registered vaccine for COVID-19. A little later, mRNA preparations from Pfizer and Moderna appeared. As they said at the time: such vaccines could not arise in Russia, as we do not have these technologies. Is this really the case?

- If a country has the technological element base necessary for mRNA synthesis, vaccines based on it can be made in a matter of weeks. We at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and our friendly biotech companies Biosan and Biolabmix started working on this base when COVID-19 was not even around. In the area of 2017-2018 we already knew how to work up some basic components. At that time, scientists in several scientific institutes in Russia and abroad were slowly working on this problem, and some of them had advanced quite seriously.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines took off quickly because all the scientific preparation had already been completed by that point. We were also ready to provide our components to make such a vaccine.

-Why couldn't you make such a drug on your own?"

- The development of mRNA vaccines is the task and responsibility of pharmaceutical companies or research institutes that are specially trained for this, have authorizations to work with dangerous pathogens, and have the necessary competencies. We are not virologists.

We have created a kind of constructor into which you can insert the middle code part - and get the desired drug.

We have a platform in our hands, we have all the elements that allow us to assemble any mRNA. And it is up to those who want to get a specific vaccine to decide what kind of mRNA to assemble. These technologies were already available in Russia two years before the pandemic.

- Maybe no one knew about them?"

- What about it? We have written about it to higher authorities and we are writing about it now. After mRNA vaccines became popular, our country started to develop a program to create a base for mRNA production. Two years have passed, but it has not yet been adopted. All this time we have been trumpeting at different levels that everything has been done for a long time, we have this platform: we wrote to the Presidential Council on Science, and personally to the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, his deputies. Nevertheless, as far as I know, the Ministry of Education and Science is still engaged in the development of the program for the creation of a domestic base, potential executors-heads of the program blocks have been appointed.... Meanwhile, the Biosan and Biolabmix group of companies has already signed 180 contracts for the supply of mRNA elements in two years.

- Could it be that two years ago, Russia did not have the legal framework to properly formalize the new technology for obtaining mRNA vaccines?"

- If we talk about the legal framework, absolutely all the vaccines that have been put on the market - Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, and even CoviVac - have undergone accelerated registration. When a country is facing a big problem, the government can go to such lengths, breaking its own established rules, to get the benefits outweighing the harms. It could be the same with mRNA vaccines.

- From your point of view, did Russia need an mRNA vaccine from COVID-19, which would have appeared, say, in parallel with Sputnik V?"

- Based on the world's experience, it wouldn't hurt, at least it wouldn't be worse. All kinds of vaccines were used in the world to fight the pandemic - protein, peptide, and mRNA. We had a peptide vaccine, EpiVacCorona, and two protein vaccines made on different platforms, CoviVac and Sputnik V.

We had a peptide vaccine, EpiVacCorona, and two protein vaccines made on different platforms, CoviVac and Sputnik V.

Every protein or peptide vaccine has to be created anew, essentially making a new product, and in that sense mRNA vaccines have a huge advantage over protein and peptide vaccines.

With an mRNA production platform, when you have everything you need to synthesize, isolate, purify, and deliver mRNA into the cell, you change only the coding part-the landmark portion of the mRNA molecule-and you can direct that vaccine against any disease.

That is, you have built a kind of "workshop", and without changing the equipment, but only by setting a combination of keys on the computer, you can output the product that you are interested in at the moment.

- So what is this "workshop"? Can you please explain what your platform consists of? Is it a box of reagents on the way out?"

- A pack of solutions in test tubes, let's call them "cubes". Let's imagine that a vaccine or mRNA preparation needs to be assembled from them. There are many cubes, they are different, each has a different color. There are chemical cubes, there are enzymatic cubes, and there are biotechnological cubes. It is unrealistic to get these cubes quickly, you need a lot of equipment and competence in different areas - chemical synthesis, enzyme-building fermenters, and chromatographic equipment.

We have a kit like a schoolboy's "Assemble the mRNA you need" kit. We get an order for a set of cubes. We send out: one, two, three, four blocks with no red, two transparent, and two green. In whatever combination that particular lab wants. These cubes have eerily complicated names for the average reader, what with only the now most popular substance N1-methyl-pseudouridine-5`-triphosphate. This is the gold standard that is being used everywhere to make mRNA vaccines more effective.

They are the gold standard.

The consumer can order 100 microliters, or they can order 10 liters. Each "cube" is purchased separately. Everything is mixed into the reaction mixture as desired by the user.

- Have absolutely all of the "cubes" from this platform already been developed by you?"

-There's one last one left. Unfortunately, we don't have our own system for delivering mRNA into the cell, but we're working on it.
- We're working on it.

- How exactly do you plan to deliver?"

- We are working on lipid components that will allow efficient delivery of mRNA to target cells. Hopefully, we'll have it done by December.

- What's being done now based on your platform?"

For example, Sirius University uses reagents developed by our biotechnology companies to develop antibacterial mRNA vaccines. Vector is developing an anti-tumor mRNA vaccine.

Our customers include about two dozen research institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, there are institutes of the Ministry of Health, two institutes of Rospotrebnadzor, three large Russian pharmaceutical companies and several dozen small Russian companies. The Skolkovo and Fiztekh competence centers are also turning to us.

Some of our customers are the Skolkovo and Fiztekh competence centers.

Since the field is growing strongly right now, mRNA drugs are also being prepared for release. This doesn't mean that other methods will be displaced, such as the use of adenoviral platforms - but there will definitely be a big surge of mRNA drugs. There is a boom in mRNA vaccines and drugs, and the number of ongoing clinical trials for mRNA vaccines alone is off the charts, with thousands of articles being published.

- Why has this trend proven to be so in demand right now?"

RNA is the basis of life. This means that life can also be influenced through RNA.

With the discovery of mRNA, scientists immediately began to make attempts to use this molecule as a target and as a tool for therapy and correction of various diseases. The scientific world will continue to move in this direction.

With the help of mRNA we can model the missing functions of an organism. If any organism is missing some protein, it is enough to put mRNA, which synthesizes this protein, into this cell, and immediately we will get the realization of this function. The molecule can be used as a target. Sometimes there are superfluous, unnecessary proteins. We can suppress their synthesis, and there are tools for that too. RNA is the universal molecule for controlling life on Earth.