Russia has thrown their hat in the race for a vaccine
Credit: DADO RUVIC
Russia has claimed that its Sputnik V vaccine against Covid-19 is more than 90 per cent effective, hours after news broke of the success of the latest trial by American pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Pfizer’s Phase 3 clinical trial began on July 27 and has enrolled 43,538 participants to date, 38,955 of whom have received a second dose of the vaccine candidate as of November 8, 2020.
Pfizer announced on Monday November 9 that the Phase 3 trial indicated a vaccine efficacy rate above 90 per cent, at 7 days after the second dose. This means that protection is achieved 28 days after the initiation of the vaccination, which consists of a 2-dose schedule.
Later that day, a representative of the Russian health ministry, citing data collated from vaccinations of the public rather than from an ongoing trial, said its own vaccine was just as effective.
"We are responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine among citizens who have received it as part of the mass vaccination programme," Oksana Drapkina, director of a research institute under the health ministry, said in a statement.
"Based on our observations, its effectiveness is also more than 90 per cent. The appearance of another effective vaccine — this is good news for everyone," Drapkina said.
Russia is rolling out the vaccine for domestic use despite the fact that late-stage trials have not yet finished.
Earlier on Monday, Alexander Gintsburg, director of Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute which developed the Russian vaccine candidate, said he welcomed the Pfizer news.
"In the near future we expect to publish interim results of the post-registration trial of the vaccine Sputnik V, the so-called Phase III trials. I am sure that its effectiveness level will also be high," he said.
Russia is gearing up to publish preliminary results of an ongoing large-scale human trial, known as Phase III, this month. It is testing the vaccine on 40,000 people in Moscow.
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