Russia registered Sputnik V for public use in August, the first country to do so. (File)
Moscow:
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, as Moscow rushes to keep pace with Western drugmakers in the vaccine race.
The first results are just the second to be released from an advanced human trial in the global race to produce a vaccine that could end a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million people and ravaged the global economy.
Russia registered Sputnik V for public use in August, the first country to do so, although approval came before the full-scale trial began in September.
The interim results are based on data from the first 16,000 trial participants to receive the two injections of the two-dose vaccine, said the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which supports the vaccine and markets it globally. whole.
The so-called phase III trial of the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute is taking place in 29 clinics across Moscow and will involve a total of 40,000 volunteers, a quarter of whom will receive a placebo.
The odds of contracting COVID-19 were 92% lower in people vaccinated with Sputnik V than in those who received the placebo, the RDIF said.
That’s well above the 50% efficacy threshold for COVID-19 vaccines set by the United States Food and Drug Administration.
“We are showing, based on the data, that we have a very effective vaccine,” said RDIF director Kirill Dmitriev, adding that this was the kind of news that the vaccine developers would one day discuss with their grandchildren. .
Russia’s announcement quickly follows results released Monday by vaccine developers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, who said their injection was also over 90% effective.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology and is designed to trigger an immune response without the use of pathogens, such as real viral particles.
The Sputnik V vaccine is designed to elicit a response from two injections given 21 days apart each on the basis of different viral vectors that normally cause colds: the human adenoviruses Ad5 and Ad26.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
