Agathonov Alexander Petrovich

Agathonov Alexander Petrovich

Education

Alexander Agafonov graduated from Novosibirsk State University with a degree in biology. He has a doctorate in biological sciences.

Career

2023: Appointment as Head of the Vector Research Institute

At the end of May 2023, Alexander Agafonov headed the State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology "Vector" of Rospotrebnadzor (developer of the vaccine against the coronavirus COVID-19 "EpiVacCorona") instead of Rinat Maksyutov, who was dismissed a few days earlier due to loss of confidence.

Agafonov previously served as deputy general director for scientific work. He was directly involved in the development of four vaccine and more than 20 diagnostic drugs. He worked with pathogens of especially dangerous human infections of 1-2 pathogenicity groups, one of the developers of methods for diagnosing COVID-19. Agafonov was awarded the Order of Pirogov and the medal of the Order of Merit to the Fatherland, II degree.

The position of director of "Vector" became vacant after on May 16, the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova dismissed the former head Rinat Maksyutov, who had headed the center since 2016. The press service of Roszdravnadzor reported that the reason for the dismissal of Rinat Maksyutov was a violation of the law on combating corruption and a conflict of interest. The service carried out measures "to suppress the revealed facts in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on combating corruption."

According to a Vedomosti source, Vector employees had previously complained to Anna Popova about the unfair distribution of wages between Maksyutov's associates and ordinary staff. Several heads of laboratories wrote appeals and even went to Moscow, he said. An ambiguous assessment of the effectiveness of the EpiVacCorona (Aurora-CoV) vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Vector could play a role, he said. There were other cases of abuse of position, says another source.^[1]

Notes