Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective in protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, the country’s sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday. Moscow rushes to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the race for a shot.
The initial results are only the second to be published from a late-stage human trial in the global effort to produce vaccines that could halt a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people and ravaged the world economy.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been backing its development and marketing it globally said, the results are based on data from the first 16,000 trial participants to receive both shots of the two-dose vaccine.”
RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev further said, “We are showing, based on the data, that we have a very effective vaccine,” adding that it was the sort of news that the vaccine’s developers would talk about one day with their grandchildren.
BREAKING: THE FIRST INTERIM DATA ANALYSIS OF THE SPUTNIK V VACCINE AGAINST COVID-19 PHASE III CLINICAL TRIALS IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION DEMONSTRATED 92% EFFICACY #SputnikVhttps://t.co/hXlrCKwjPE
— Sputnik V (@sputnikvaccine) November 11, 2020
The study was conducted after 20 participants in the trial developed COVID-19 and observed how many of them had received the vaccine versus a placebo. It is significantly lower than the 94 infections in the trial of a vaccine being developed by Pfizer Inc PFE.N and BioNTech BNTX.O.
Pfizer said it would continue its trial until there were 164 COVID-19 cases in order to confirm the efficacy rate. The data from the study will be published in a leading international medical journal following a peer review the Russian trial would continue for six more months said, RDIF.
European stocks and U.S. stock futures extended their gains slightly after Russia’s announcement.
ALSO READ| Russia To Approve Second COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Next Week
SPUTNIK V
Sputnik V is a Russian drug is named after the Soviet-era satellite that triggered the space race, a nod to the project’s geopolitical importance for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It is designed to activate a response from two shots administered 21 days apart, each based on different viral vectors that normally cause the common cold: human adenoviruses Ad5 and Ad26.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine uses a messenger called RNA (mRNA) technology and is designed to generate an immune response without using pathogens, such as actual virus particles.
On Tuesday Putin said, Russia is also testing different vaccines, produced by the Vector Institute in Siberia, and is on the cusp of registering a third.
RDIF said as of Nov. 11 no serious side effects had been reported during the Sputnik V Phase III trial.
Some volunteers had short-term minor adverse events such as pain at the injection site, flu-like syndrome including fever, weakness, fatigue, and headache, it said.
MASS VACCINATIONS
Successful vaccines are seen as a critical to restoring daily life around the world by helping end the health crisis that shuttered businesses and put millions out of work.
In august Russia registered the vaccine for domestic use, and has also inoculated 10,000 people considered at high risk of COVID-19 outside of the trial
Russia expects to start mass vaccinations by the end of the year, said Putin.
Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya Institute, said, “The publication of the interim results of the post-registration clinical trials that convincingly demonstrate Sputnik V vaccine’s efficacy gives way to mass vaccination in Russia against COVID-19 in the coming weeks.”
Moscow is rolling out a large network of vaccination rooms and residents who want the shot may be able to get it as early as next month if large volumes of doses are supplied by then, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on Oct. 30.
However, production challenges remain. Earlier estimates that Russia could produce 30 million doses of the vaccine this year have since been scaled down.
Moscow aims to produce 800,000 doses this month, industry minister Denis Manturov has said, followed by 1.5 million in December. But significantly higher volumes of output per month are expected from early 2021.
ALSO READ| Covid-19: Russian Vaccine Shows Signs Of Antibody Response, Says Lancet Study
Manturov cited issues with scaling up production from small to large-volume bioreactors, while Putin last month cited issues with the availability of equipment.
In late October, the vaccination of new volunteers was temporarily paused due to high demand and a shortage of doses.
Officials have said that domestic production of the vaccine will be used first to meet Russia’s needs.
RDIF, however, has also struck several international supply deals, amounting to 270 million doses in total.
It is expected that these will in large part be produced in other countries and RDIF has previously announced a deal to manufacture 300 million doses in India and an undisclosed amount of doses in Brazil, China and South Korea.
Trials have also begun in Belarus, and are on track to begin soon in the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and India.
Russia reported 19,851 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours and a record high of 432 deaths. At 1,836,960, its overall case tally is the fifth largest in the world, behind the United States, India, Brazil and France.
